TED NewsDesk, Ahmedabad. Gujarat ranked first among all Indian states in terms of the number of times online learning initiatives by the state government were accessed on DIKSHA, the central government’s online learning portal. The state-wise analysis of data collected from the Ministry of Education industry, known as the DIKSHA portal (Digital Infrastructure for School Education), showed that Gujarat is at the top among other states in the “direct plays” category.
“Direct plays” connotes the number of times all initiatives of the state government covering live and online learning sessions were accessed. Gujarat has over 1.75 crore ‘direct plays”. While, in other categories, like ETB-Energised Textbooks that have QR codes, aiming at providing access to digital content on numerous topics in physical textbooks, and “course plays,” it ranks at fifth and fourth position, respectively. ‘Course plays” is the count of online course content accessed by students. The state records over 6.76 crore course plays, the list of which is topped by Madhya Pradesh, with over 10.28 crore. Thus, in the total plays or clicks or number of times the students access all the digital content, Madhya Pradesh ranked at the top, followed by Gujarat in the second position.
“In addition to these rankings reflected in the Diksha portal’s dashboard, in Gujarat, the number of times learning activities undertaken using Diksha infrastructure by students is over 5.41 crore. This has been on an increase which peaked in the first week of this month,” said P. Bharathi, State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha. She further noted that the state rankings also put into focus initiatives from the government like the “home learning online course” for over 2 lakh government school teachers. These initiatives have paid off across Gujarat, save for a few districts like Dang, Kutch, and Dahod. Teachers in the stare have achieved an overall enrollment rate of 93 per cent district-wise.
The hour-long online outreach certificate course for teachers aims to educate teachers on how to effectively use different modes of learning depending upon a student’s availability. Among these, Dang has the lowest enrollment rate at 64% from roughly 1,850 teachers, followed by Dahod and Kutch, with over 73% for the online outreach certificate course for teachers launched on September 25. However, such low enrollment rates can also be attributed to internet issues in these districts. The districts that have achieved 100% enrollment rates are inclusive of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Anand, and Navsari.
Also, from the enrolled, an equal percentage of 93 per cent have completed the course. Those failing to do so are asked to go through the program again. Around 30% still do not have any digital facility. For such students, textbooks are available and home-learning modules that are printed and distributed to them.
A recent survey conducted among 91.58 lakh students to assess the availability of technology medium through which a child could access home learning programs has brought out that while over 48% of kids had access to television sets, 59% had access to a smartphone or tablet.
