Digital Learning Should not Lead to Digital Divide: Vice President

“Digital learning should not lead to the digital divide,” said Vice President Venkaiah Naidu as he called for increased access to the internet especially in rural areas and remote places and keeping “inclusivity at the heart of the educational experience”.

While inaugurating the Sports Centre at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR) in Chennai on February 14, he stressed that while central and state governments are taking measures to promote digital learning, it is important to ensure that there is no digital divide.

He also highlighted the need to upgrade the skills of teachers in e-learning. He emphasised the importance of quality teacher training and said that ‘teachers constitute the intellectual lifeline of a nation and play a critical role in charting its development’.

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The Vice President also inaugurated the NITTTR Open Educational Resource (OER) today. He called it an important step in improving inclusivity through distance education and said that it would help the teachers in improving their knowledge base and teaching methodology. He called for taking teaching from a one-way mode of communication to a two-way mode where activities need to be connected from content to context.

“Education does not mean just degrees,” he said adding that the true purpose of education is enlightenment, empowerment, and wisdom. He further lauded the role of teachers as ‘COVID warriors’ and doing their best to ensure the academic continuity of their students during the pandemic.

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Emphasizing the need to promote and preserve Indian languages, he also appreciated AICTE for starting technical courses in Indian languages. Reiterating that no languages should be imposed or opposed, he opined that one must learn as many languages as possible but priority must be given to the mother tongue.

Referring to the National Education Policy 2020 as a visionary document, the vice president said that it seeks to transform the education ecosystem in our country and underlines the importance of energising and motivating young faculty members.

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