Imact of ICT on primary education in rural areas

Abstract

A major factor resulting in socio-economic gaps is the lack of access to education and educational resources. Despite government expenditure of Rs. 791.19 crore (2003-04) on primary education, and elementary education expenditure averaging about 1.76% of the GDP, the literacy rate in rural areas is only 59.21%. According to UNDP estimates, at the current rate, India will need about 56 years to achieve full literacy. The availability of ICT, however, has enabled development of new methodologies for providing access to primary education to its ‘consumers’ at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Developmental initiatives by Multi-National Corporates in rural areas have sprung new hope for India for it to leapfrog in the future to achieve global standards in its educational system. This study identifies ‘Critical success factors’ that govern and ensure the success of these initiatives such as the one by HP at Kuppam. Identifying such factors become important, given the various stakeholders with not very similar objectives operating together in such an initiative. Identification of a ‘minimum handholding period’ (that is to say for how long should the corporate support the school before the school authorities feel comfortable with the use of ICT within their curriculum) for the corporate is one of its major concerns. The corporate needs to identify the effectiveness of its initiative year on year. It needs to quantify the intangible benefits and ‘value add’ to the demand side stakeholders (school authorities, teachers and students). The study developed assessment mechanisms that could be used by the corporate for the same. Although, such initiatives act as perfect testing sites for its technological breakthroughs and brand building among the community, identification of sustained revenue models is an important concern for the corporate. The study generates options that are intended to provide a basic direction of approach for identifying revenue models. In depth analysis of these options and their implementation were not done due to time constraints