The Hindu Business Line : Karnataka: 885 schools get into Edusat loop

The programmes beamed through satellite will supplement curriculum-based teaching in these predominantly tribal schools and will be fitted into the schools' timetables.

The joint project of ISRO and the Karnataka Government who have set up the terminals is part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan being implemented by the Department of State Educational Research & Training (DSERT).

The Chief Minister, Mr N Dharam Singh, who inaugurated the programme, said all backward area schools would be brought under the programme. The State proposes to add 200 terminals in the backward northern districts.

Each direct receive terminal costing about Rs 1 lakh is meant to exclusively beam Edusat programmes. It comes with a Ku-band dish antenna, a set-top box and a 29-inch colour TV monitor along with solar battery pack to provide uninterrupted reception for 2-4 hours.

The ISRO said it has borne the cost of the terminals — totalling around Rs 8.8 crore — while the DSERT produces the content and local people maintain the sets.

The department has produced 100 programmes in science, maths and languages using animation and plans to prepare another 100 by June.

Initially 289 terminals have been set up in Chamarajanagar, 203 in Gundlupet, 69 in Yelandur, 114 in Kollegal, 194 in Kannur and 14 in H.D.Kote. The content and delivery system will be periodically evaluated to take the tele-education programme to backward and remote areas, the ISRO said.

This programme apart, the Visvesvaraya Technological University Network has 100 nodes that are being transferred to Edusat.

Edusat, the satellite dedicated for countrywide tele-education, was launched on an Indian rocket in September 2004.

With its national hub in Ahmedabad, the Edusat project includes IGNOU, NCERT, IITs at Kharagpur and Chennai, the Institute of Electronics and Tele-communication Engineers, DST/National Council of Science Museum; Centre for Environmental Education.

The southern beam uses Anna University, Chennai; Annamalai University; Gandhigram Rural Institute at Dindigul; Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi; Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Tamil Nadu; besides the Western, Northern and Eastern beams.

The ISRO said Edusat was expected to herald a new era in education by bridging the distances and allowing effective optimum sharing of scarce teaching resources.

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