Rishikesh Patankar has more than 20 years of experience including stints at National R & D lab, top universities abroad, and Indian Navy. He holds three master degrees in Computer Science/IT and is NET qualified. He manages large scale multiple projects in the ICT domain. He is working as Chief Operating Officer in CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a SPV under Ministry of Electronics & IT looking after education, Skill Development and CSC Academy.

Question:A survey by QS suggests that the infrastructure in terms of technology in India is not ready for online education. What do you think about this?

Since India is a diverse country- we have 700 plus districts, 6500 blocks/ talukas, 2.5 lakh gram panchayats and 6.5 lakh villages, it is difficult to get an infrastructure of same level. However, the government is making efforts to improve the infrastructure- it will take sometime to secure good connectivity all across, but it shall happen. I agree that currently we face such problems in urban areas as well; but government is taking initiatives to improve the condition. The Digital India initiative was launched in 2014 which means digital infrastructure has been given importance; Bharat Net will empower the gram panchayats- at rural level- I am sure they will have fairly seamless connectivity- It would help them access basic facilities like- education, health care, etc.

Question:We can't expect everybody to have laptops and desktops, however India is the second largest user of smartphones and monthly active internet users, can we take this as an advantage?

India ranks number 2 in terms of Smartphone users, after China. In Biometrics India is number 1. We stand 2nd in Social Media use. According to the TRAI report, India is at second position in terms of Internet Subscribers. So looking at the overall mobile penetration, we can assume that mobile can be used as a learning tool, and pandemic has reflected the same. Many schools and colleges are using mobiles and laptops to continue their academic activities- however many institutions are facing connectivity issues. With such disruptions, learning anyway has to come to mobile phones. In terms of accessibility – both computers and mobile phones are equally important.

Question:Our education system has hardly been practical, our pedagogy is more towards rote learning, but online education is different, what are the structural reforms that the government should take in order to improve quality of education when online?

Government needs to work on providing better connectivity. Apart from that, in Online, each student’s path and learning is different. MHRD has come up with different courses for schools and college students, there are eportals like SWAYAM available for students to learn- but the important requirement is for personalized learning. There is a need for creating adaptive and personalized learning content- this will give the country an edge.

In higher education, most of the students had access to mobile phones and laptops, they were comfortable with it as well- but after the Pandemic there is a new normal that has set in. Now even students between Nursery and 12th Grade are getting used to online learning- which is a welcome step for online learning. Initially online education was thought of as a supplementary kind of education- classroom learning and classroom teaching were considered most important, but now both the modes are running parallelly and will continue to run parallelly in times to come.

Question:I was reading an article by Manish Sabharwal and Shantanu Rooj in Financial Express that stated ;only 7 out of 993 Universities in India are allowed to run their online courses, so other Institutions were not even prepared. What are your comments on this?

I think because the lockdown was sudden, things seemed ill prepared. However faculties were ready and they assured good delivery. But I won’t deny in accepting that if Universities or Colleges have had a Learning Management System that would have helped them in offering facilities to their students smoothly. In this case, Universities with LMS or intelligent system had an edge!

Question:What are initiatives taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to help improve e-learning experience for Indian Higher Education Institutions and their students?

Since Common Service Centres (CSCs) work with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, we are delivering a digital literacy course under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan. As a part of this scheme, we are delivering 20 hours of digital literacy content to 60 million people.

We have trained 35 million people, and planning to train the rest soon. We have been doing remote proctored exams since 2014- so we are prepared and look forward to helping Colleges and Universities. Apart from this MeIT has tied up with NASSCOM and many free courses are being offered. MeIT has also invited applications for video conferencing solution from startups- the selected model would receive a VC funding from Government of India.

"Initially online education was thought of as a supplementary kind of education- classroom learning and classroom teaching were considered most important, but now both the modes are running parallelly and will continue to run parallelly in times to come. In this case, Universities with LMS or intelligent system had an edge. MHRD has come up with different courses for schools and college students, there are eportals like SWAYAM available for students to learn- but the important requirement is for personalized learning. There is a need for creating adaptive and personalized learning content- this will give the country an edge", said Rishikesh Patankar, COO, CSC Academy, CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd., Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology while speaking with Rana Jyoti, Associate Editor, India Education Forum.