National Policy on ICT in School Education

Community Information Centres In Meghalaya ; Problems And Perspectives ; Outlining A Model

INTRODUCTION :

The Community Information Centers (CIC) in the North East States have been established keeping in mind the ‘needs’ of the community. Thus they exist in all districts and function as an extension of the block resource centers. The idea is that the community collectively and individually gain : access to information, training in vocational skills, independence of activity whether professional or academic etc. Hence the CICs can become the pivot of community ‘enabling’ centers where the community gathers; learns, discusses needs, and plays on active role in decision making. The young and the old will be involved and the gender issue will be addressed. Since these CICs are a part or an extension of the block resource centers, the Block Development Officers (BDO) will play a significant role in formulating extension-based activities.

But is all this happening? Unfortunately no. IGNOU’s intervention in attempting to begin a computer literacy programme, for those who are functionally literate, has led to only a very limited success. Guidelines will be involved to promote the Computer Literacy Programme in the Community Information Centers. There are 32 CICs in the state of Meghalaya. The Computer Literacy Programme of IGNOU is innovative in its concept of imparting literacy as computer literacy is, in my opinion a part of literacy. The computer operators complain that there is firstly; lack of trained personnel and secondly there are frequent power cuts / electricity interruptions. Added to this are the interiority of these locations which leads to a communication gap between the CICs and the IGNOU Regional Centers. The Computer Literacy Programme of the IGNOU could well have been integrated with the other functions of the CICs. What exactly are these ‘other functions’ will be a serious objective of this study. There are other administrative and bureaucratic problems in the CICs such as lack of regular employees. The computer operators are only ad hoc employees, and obviously such adhocism is a deterrent to the growth of the CICs. So what is happening, and a ground reality is that the innovative concept of Community Centere where it could be the hub of financial, academic and even cultural activity is languishing. There are 7-8 computers in each CIC with internet facilities and the youth do come sometimes and browse the internet. But that can have only half-baked results and not the desired ones.

OBJECTIVES :

The objectives of this study is to see how these CICs can effectively function as community leaning centers where the collective will of a community in a village is endorsed and where both the young and the old participate in skill development such as tailoring, weaving, making handicrafts, fruit and vegetables processing etc.This will also be a part of adult education where apart from undertaking the above mentioned activities, computer literacy will be imparted to enable the rural folk to access information, as well as to effectively communicate with others from the outside world. Khasi one of the languages of Meghalaya uses the Roman script so lack of knowledge in English or little of it will not impede learning in this context. As a part of the study the bottlenecks impeding growth of these centres will be analysed.

RELEVANCE AND BENEFICIARIES

The outcomes and beneficiaries will be both; the youth and the adult from both the sexes. Using the computer to make people read and write can also be one part of the objectives. This will be literacy, numeracy and the computer can simulate a classroom where tasks can be undertaken such as :

describing a scenery
writing a letter
describing an event that has taken place in the village

Similarly the instructors can give presentations with the help of Computers/LCD projectors on :

(a) HIV/AIDS

(b) Geographical information about different countries, different regions in our country

(c) Protecting the environment Why ? How ?

(d) Gender bias.

(e) Child labour and so on.

The computer technology including the use of the internet will then ‘simulate’ a classroom and the CIC then becomes a hub of teaching and learning activity. At the same time the radio and the television should be used, to impart information. IGNOU’s interactive radio counselling can be broadcast, as well as DTH services; where there are television relay station. Thus technology will be used in an integrated manner to impart literacy as well as skills based training, vocational upliftment. So a few things will be taking place simultaneously :

i. vocational activities
ii. training
iii. literacy with the help of computers
iv. internet browsing
v. social commitments

The Community Information Centers will be the nodal point for communal participation as well as creative thinking and learning. Training of the trainers will be a crucial component here; as the instructors will have to be trained on the given guidelines (mentioned above), so that theirs will be an empathetic involvement. Local village headmen, sarpanch members of the gram panchayat durbar and teachers can also be requested to render voluntary help in this regard.

AREAS TO BE COVERED :

In this project only the Khasi, Jaintia and Ribhoi districts of Meghalaya (out of senven districts) are meant to be covered. This means that out of the 32 CICs of the state roughly 15 or 16 will be taken up in this pilot project.

METHODOLOGY :

The methodology will be based on interviews with the local villagers, headmen, youth, BDOs, Employees of NGOs as well as counsel to be sought from the State Dept. of Information and Technology, NIC i.e. National Informatic Center, Govt. of India etc. The interviews will be in the form of advice to be sought as to how we create the ideal Community Centers where knowledge is based not on commodification, but as participation and interaction. Moreover, the enhancement and utilization of technology as an integrated whole; with the radio, the television and the computer ; acting on one another will be impressed upon. The ‘interviews’ will be an interface with important members of the community, including teachers, bureaucrats and Govt. representatives who are, so to say the ‘Face’ of the community.

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