Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Indian University Plans Dramatic Expansion of Distance Education via the Airwaves By MARTHA ANN OVERLAND New Delhi In order to extend educational opportunities to nearly every village in India, the Indira Gandhi National Open University will establish 40 FM radio stations and set up 2,000 television satellite downlinks to its study centers. Hunaman P. Dikshit, the university's vice chancellor, told the annual conference of the Asian Association of Open Universities here last week that his institution was undertaking a massive project to use technology to improve its distance-learning programs. The new television and radio facilities will bring educational programming, in languages specific to the local area, to every corner of the country, he said. The university is India's largest purveyor of distance-learning programs, with an enrollment of 750,000 students. It already provides programming for a government-run educational-television channel. The university has state-of-the-art recording studios, which televise professors' lectures, panel discussions, and call-in programming for some of its distance-learning courses. Many students in a country as poor as India, however, do not have access to television. By establishing 2,000 satellite downlinks to the study centers, colleges, and schools where distance-learning programs are offered, the university will allow more students to take advantage of the educational programming. Officials at the university said they hoped to finish installing all of the satellite links within the next six months. But the biggest push will be in radio. The university activated its first FM station last November, and by the end of May, the institution will have a total of 12. The government pays the $30,000 construction cost for each station. While the university provides some educational fare, most of the programs are produced at the local level by regional universities, nongovernmental organizations, and community groups. Radio is a natural in a place like India, where radios are far more affordable than televisions. In addition, electricity in India is unreliable or even nonexistent in some areas. Radios run on batteries; some of the newer models operate on solar power or can even be hand-cranked. Perhaps more important, people here embrace the spoken word, said Mr. Sreedher, the director of the university's Electronic Media Production Center. "India has an oral tradition -- the 'guru shiksha' tradition -- where wisdom and learning has always been passed down from a teacher using the spoken word," said Mr. Sreedher, who uses one name. "Indians are more attuned to radio. On TV they only want to see Bollywood films," he said, referring to the popular singing and dancing movies made in Bombay. India, with a population of a billion people, has an estimated 65 million FM radios, according to Mr. Sreedher. But he expects that number to skyrocket as soon as there are more offerings on the air. "With one day's wage, even the lowest-paid worker can buy a radio today," he said. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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