The education ministry and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Tuesday roped in 48 edtech firms to boost online education for students and executives and offer tech solutions to institutions.
The common platform will serve both the business-to-business and business-to-customer space in a varied field ranging from online courses to assessment, and from career support to coding, the regulator for professional courses said.
The move is part of the government’s strategy to open up virtual learning and increase technology adoption in higher education. Besides, it will offer a wider choice to students and executives and is aimed at creating an online education platform with both government and private players on board.
This will help streamline online education options, delivery and regulations and is in sync with the National Education Policy mandate of tech adoption and flexibility in the tertiary education space.
The initiative will help millions of students upgrade their skills in line with industry needs, said education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal.
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The platform will “revolutionize the future of online learning in India, especially after the coronavirus pandemic outbreak” and with the aid of artificial intelligence tools, it “will help to offer a personalized learning experience to students, which will bring better outcomes for students”, said AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe.
The on-boarding of 48 edtech firms, including upGrad, Great Learning, WileyNxt, Simplilearn and CodeMantra, will offer 79 categories of products and services.
“These edtech companies offer courses on categories such as e-content for niche areas having highly marketable skills, certification courses, assessment tests, psychometric tests, lab tools, coding skills and testing, learning games, career counselling, internship support, placement support, aptitude test, cognitive skills, management, accounting and finance and courses related to engineering and pharmacy students,” AICTE said.
The move will expose students to the best of tools and technology platforms in the edtech sector, said Ramana T.S.V., chief executive officer of CodeMantra.
“Industry linked and job-oriented courses will benefit both students and executives. Edtech players, universities and education administrators joining hands for online education is a net positive and shows the intention of authorities to leverage technology in sync with the New Education Policy. Adoption of online courses by institutions and universities will be key,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder of upGrad, which provides industry-linked courses in collaboration with leading universities and institutions.
Courtesy: Live Mint.com
