A critical view of NMEICT- challenges and way forward

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is very powerful tool which can resolve so many unaddressed issues in education in general. The teacher pupil ratio is worrisome in many colleges. The infrastructural issues in emerging universities and its constituent colleges remained as big challenge for higher education success. National Knowledge Commission(NKC) was established to achieve its objectives of Creation of new knowledge principally depends on strengthening the education system, Application of knowledge which will primarily target the sectors of health, agriculture, government and industry, Dissemination of knowledge focuses on ensuring universal elementary education, especially for girls and other traditionally disadvantaged groups and using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance standards in education. NMEICT project is primarily focusing on Higher educational institutes and universities along with respective affiliated colleges. Under this Mission, a proper balance between content generation, research in critical areas relating to imparting of education and connectivity for integrating our knowledge with the advancements in other countries is to be attempted. National Knowledge Network (NKN) project also is aimed at establishing a strong and robust Indian network which will provide secure and reliable connectivity. NKN with its multi-gigabit capability aims to connect all universities, research institutions, libraries, laboratories, healthcare and agricultural institutions across the country to address multidisciplinary and collaborative paradigm. Both NMEICT connected institutions and NKN network connected institutions get synergised with cloud connectivity This network having role in establishing a high-speed backbone connectivity which will enable knowledge and information sharing amongst NKN connected institutions, enabling collaborative research, development and innovation amongst NKN connected institutes and Facilitating advanced distance education in specialized fields like engineering, science, medicine etc. The key issues in effective utilisation of the network provided and Policy alternatives shall be discussed in this paper.