National Policy on ICT in School Education

NATIONAL LEVEL CONSULTATION ON
BUILDING A POLICY FOR ICT IN SCHOOL EDUCATION
Inter-Ministerial Meet
February 13, 2008
Grand Inter Continental, New Delhi
The first Inter-Ministerial National Consultation on drafting the National policy on ICT in school education was held on February 13, 2008 under the aegis of Ministry of HRD with the help of their strategic partner Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI). The objective of the consultation was to conduct a collaborative, consultative and participatory process in making of the National Policy by involving Government departments along with other stakeholders including the educational institutions, private sector, experts, state representatives and civil society.

The agenda for the consultation consisted of:

Introducing Pre-Draft Policy Document and taking the participants through the journey of the process undertaken so far in making of the draft policy and also apprise all about the roadmap planned to be followed,
Conducting Interactive Session on the Thematic Focus Areas of the draft policy, and
Summarising the feedback and planning a way ahead.

Attendees:

S.C.Khuntia: Joint Secretary, Bureau of School Education, New Delhi
P.K.Mohanty: Education Advisor, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi
Sam Carlson: Lead Education Specialist, World Bank, New Delhi
Dr. Gautam Bose: Deputy Director General, NIC, New Delhi
H. N. S. Rao: Academic Head- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
Namur Rahman: Director, One World South Asia, New Delhi
Vinnie Mehta: Executive Director, Manufacturer's Association for Information Technology (MAIT), New Delhi
Shabnam Sinha: CEO (PPP Initiatives)IL&FS Education Technology Services, Mumbai
Dr. Babu Sebastian: Director, SIET, Govt. of Kerala
Anvar Sadath: Executive Director, IT@ school Projects, Government of Kerala
Muralidhar K.S.: CEO, 24x7guru.com, Hyderabad
L. Balasubramanian: President, NIIT Limited, Chennai
O. N. Singh: Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, New Delhi
Saurav Banerjee: Senior Education Specialist, USAID, New Delhi
Ashish Garg: Programme Coordinator, India, GeSCI, Gurgaon, Haryana
Kumar Naik: Commissioner for Public Instructions, Karnataka
Dilip Rajekar: CEO, Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore
R. P. Sharma: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi
Dr. Vasudha Kamat: Joint Director, NCERT, New Delhi
Ram Narayanan: Director, Unlimited Potential Group,Microsoft (India), Bangalore
Anshul Sonak: South Asia Education Manager, Corporate Affairs, Intel, Bangalore
Shankar Choudhary: National Officer, UNESCO, New Delhi
Sunil Alag: Department of Information Technology, New Delhi
Utpal Mallik: Head- Department of Computer Education, NCERT, New Delhi
Dr. C. Chandramohan: Advisor, Education, Planning Commission, New Delhi
Ravi Gupta: Executive Director, CSDMS, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Mitra Lal: Additional Director, Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh
Dilip Kumar: Under Secretary, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi
T. S.Y. Aravindakshan: Account Manager, Education, Microsoft, Bangalore
Sundeep Saxena: Divisional Sales Head, NIIT, New Delhi
A. K. Goyal: Central Institute of Education (CIE), New Delhi
Dr. C. V. Vijaya Kumar: AVP- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
Soumya Kanti: President- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
Temjen Aier: School Education Department, Government of Nagaland
Rishikesh P: Sr. Researcher, Media Lab Asia, New Delhi
M C Pant: Chairman, Nation Institute of Open School (NIOS)
Ashok Kumar: Project Manager, Department of Elementary Education- I Bureau
Ramesh K Verma: Consultant, Reliance, New Delhi

The discussion was primarily based on Introduction, Vision, Mission, Background note, Definition of ICT, Objectives and Targets, and Thematic/Strategic Objectives namely, Infrastructure, ICT Content Development, Capacity Building. Amongst the participants, it was consensually agreed that there was a need to have another round of consultation on the remaining seminal sections of the policy draft document, such as, Research and Innovation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Private Partnership, Norms and Standards and Quality in School Education.