Hyderabad: AICTE asks technical institutions to avail Swayamprabha DTH

Hyderabad: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) asked its affiliated institutions in the rural and far-flung areas to make use of Swayamprabha, the MHRD launched Direct-to-Home (DTH) television channel.

The AICTE advisory has come following several rural and far-flung areas have been facing internet bandwidth problem to access internet. An AICTE circular sent to all the technical, management and other affiliated institutions said that the 32 DTH channels on 24/7 have been launched for telecasting High-Quality Education Programmes (HQEP), through the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG).

The AICTE Chairman, Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe said the telecasts are carried out every day with new contents at least for four hours. This would be repeat telecasted for five more times in a day, to allow students to choose the time of their choice.

The contents are provided by NPTEL, llTs, AICTE, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and others. The DTH channels cover curriculum-based course contents at a post-graduate and under-graduate level covering diverse disciplines such as Arts, Science, Commerce, Performing arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Law, Medicine, Agriculture, etc.

He said that the DTH education channels also cover school education of IX to XII levels. They include modules for teacher's training as well as teaching and learning aids for children of the country to help them understand the subjects better. That apart they help them in preparing for competitive examinations for admissions to professional degree programmes.

Besides, "all courses are certification-ready in their detailed offering through SWAYAM, the platform developed for offering Moocs (on-line) courses. All courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and they are available, free of cost to any learner'.

While the SWAYAM is available online, he asked the institutions to use Swayamprabha DTH channels, especially those in rural and far-flung areas of the country, where internet bandwidth may be a bottleneck.

Prof Sahasrabudhe said Swayamprabha helps students and teachers in improving the quality of education and knowledge enhancement. The institutions can access the education channels either through Doordarshan free dish or set-top box.