VIDYA VAHINI

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Communications minister Arun Shourie is casting his net wide to catch'em young. On wednesday, he announced an ambitious project to connect 60,000 scholls, either run by the government or funded by it, through intranet and the Internet to bring information technology to the classroom.

The Project, called 'Vidya Vahini', was formally launched by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee through a videoconference with the Maharastra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Andra Pradesh CM chandrababu Naidu, Gujrat CM Narendra Modi, Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda, West Bengal infotech minister Manvebdra Mukherjee and UP urban development minister Lalji Tandon.

These are the states where pilots has been run prior to finalising the project.

The Project, to run through the 10th plan, envisages providing these schools with computer labs to facilitate IT education, internet access, online library, academic services and webcasting.

Shourie said pilot projects had been undertaken in 140 schools in seven districts in the country, Lucknow and Allahabad in UP, Gandhinagar in Gujrat, Hazabagh in Jharkhand, Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh, South 24 Parganas in West Bengal and Parlivaijnath in Maharastra.

In each of these districts, 20 schools were selected in consultaion with the state governmnet. Each school was provided one computer lab with hardware worth Rs 10 lakh. All the labs will be inter-connected through the Net or intranet. This will help create a central knowledge pool and educational tools that can be drawn from at will by any intrested student, teacher or school.

Describing the merits of the project, Shourie said it was not a means to replace teachers but to enhance their teaching capability through virtual reality.

A student of Geography will learn and absorb facts better if he is taken on a virtual tour of, say, Andhara Pradesh, where he can see the places and hear the music. This is much better than a reference to a flat map.

The project was drawn up by the department of information technology (DIT) and is being implemented by ERNET India, an autonomous body under the DIT and is being implemented by ERNET India, an autonomous body under the DIT. While National Informatics Centre has developed the software, ISRO is providing satellite link.