New Delhi: Community participation in education can be helpful for children as it can increase the enrolment in the schools and will decrease the drop-out rate. The following revelation was made after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) conducted a study on one such initiative resulted in digitisation of schools in District Dhule.
"The study undertaken by NCPCR examined the impact of digitalisation in education and how community participation has helped in setting up of digital classes in the schools," said Priyank Kanoongo, a member of NCPCR.
Harshal Vibhandik, a native of Dhule district in Maharastra started the initiative. More than 500 Prerna Sabhas have been organised at both village and district level. It was attended by teachers, parents, other community members along with the District Education Officer, Block Education Officer and Cluster officers.
"In Prerna Sabha, they would explain the importance of digital education by showing demos of the digital classrooms and different techniques of digital education. Videos of digital schools are also being shown and comparisons are drawn with their village schools," said NCPCR official.
At the end of the meeting, officers along with the school officials would declare the amount they will give to the school. Seeing the effort made by others, people would get motivated and would give the amount according to their capacity which helped in building classes for the poor children.
The Commission started their study regarding the digital education and community participation. It was found that digitalisation of schools has the positive impact on the education of children. Kids prefer multimedia education as compared to the traditional lecture method and are found to be more enjoyable. Their concentration in school and understanding of what is being taught in the class has increased along with their learning skills.
For teachers, technology aided education is a convenient manner of instruction. Also, there is an increase in enrolment, attendance and Pragat category students in the last two years.
As a result of the Digital School Initiative, more than 760 students came back from English Medium Schools to Zilla Parishad Schools in 2017. This initiative has been supported by the community people. Along with the teachers and headmasters of the schools, they made a contribution of Rs. 59 lakh.
The Commission further claimed that provision of electricity is an important challenge in using technology in schools. With digitalisation of schools, comes the problem of load shedding and increased electricity bill.
Uninterrupted internet facility should be provided in all Zila Parishad Schools where the classes have been digitalized.
"Given the positive impact of the use of technology in classrooms, other states may too adopt this mechanism of digitalization through community participation in their states," said Priyank Kanoongo.