20-Apr-2020: Union HRD Minister chairs the review meeting on SWAYAM and SWAYAM Prabha in New Delhi

Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' held a detailed review of the National online education platform SWAYAM and the 32 DTH Television Education Channels SWAYAM PRABHA in New Delhi today.  Secretary, MHRD Shri Amit Khare,  Chairman, UGC, Shri D.P Singh, Chairman AICTE, Shri Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman NCERT, Shri Hrushikesh Senapaty, Chairman NIOS, senior official of the ministry, National Coordinators and Professors from IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIM Bangalore and IIIT Hyderabad participated in the meeting.

A brief presentation of the progress of these schemes was made. In the lockdown condition there has been a tremendous increase in demand and the usage of SWAYAM Courses and SWAYAM PRABHA videos.

SWAYAM

1902 courses are available currently in SWAYAM, which have been offered to 1.56 cr. students since launch. Currently, over 26 lakh students are taking 574 courses on offer. In all, 1509 courses are available for self-learning. SWAYAM 2.0 also supports launch of Online degree programmes. Mapping of SWAYAM courses to AICTE model curriculum has been done, gaps identified. A similar exercise for non-technical courses is underway by a committee of UGC.

 It was decided that all the 1900 SWAYAM Courses and 60000 SWAYAM PRABHA videos would be translated into ten regional languages and made available to the students so that more benefit can be derived from the same. The more popular content, and for engineering courses taught in first year shall, however, be prioritized for translation.  It was decided to decentralize the task of translation to the National Coordinators, who may be allowed to use all possible services like students, government or private agencies, available technology to undertake translation of content.

The whole project will be started immediately and completed in a time bound manner.  The popular courses and videos would be done first.  In order to complete this exercise  in the shortest possible time a number of educational institutions across the country would be asked to contribute.   Each NC shall submit an action plan to MHRD (E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by 23rd April.

An advisory shall be issued to all Directors of IITs to provide all help to the NCs in the task of translation of content, creation of new content in gap areas, and acceptance of credit transfer.

It was also decided that UGC and AICTE will follow up with Universities and institutions to accept SWAYAM credits. This will enable students to do part of their course though MOOC and part in various colleges.

Also, to encourage faculty to provide more courses under SWAYAM, appropriate incentives for their career will be provided.

Further, UGC has been asked to prepare guidelines regarding online and Distance learning guidelines to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio.

SWAYAM Prabha

The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience.

The following decisions were taken:

• Possibility of redistribution of channels to match available content, and viewership shall be explored.
• It was also decided to enrich the content in SWAYAM PRABHA by collecting content from who so ever willing to contribute the same under Vidya Daan Programme.  Subject expert committees shall be formed by each NC to approve the content received, before getting it uploaded on SWAYAM Prabha
• The broadcast over DTH will be popularized through all available channels, including radio, social media.
• The video content on SWAYAM Prabha shall be mapped to curriculum, and the academic calendar
• For the translation of content of four IIT-PAL channels, CBSE, NIOS shall provide all assistance to IIT-Delhi. This matter shall be followed up by JS(IEC) in MHRD.

14-Apr-2020: NIOS of HRD Ministry initiates a unique method to ensure effective schooling to reach the unreached directly at door step

The HRD Ministry has taken several prompt, new and unique initiatives to ensure that the education of  learners should not get affected by the challenging situation arising out of Covid 19 .

Under the direction of MHRD, NIOS has initiated a unique method to ensure effective schooling to reach the unreached directly at door step. Fulfilling the objectives of quality education, content is being made available online through 'SWAYAM’ MOOC platform of MHRD for various subjects from class 9th to 12th. Along with Self Learning Material, 'SWAYAM’ portal provides video lectures and facility of self-assessment. The questions and queries of the learners are also being resolved through discussions forum.

In addition, for those who do not have much access to internet, these video lectures are telecast on MHRD SWAYAMPRABHA TV channels with Live sessions to interact with their teachers and subject experts.

Those students who are preparing for JEE and NEET are benefited while sitting at home through this initiative.

In wake of COVID-19 pandemic, NIOS has made excellent innovations in telecast of Live session through Skype in joint association with KVS, NVS and CBSE & NCERT through Swayam Prabha DTH Channel Panini (#27), Channel Sharda (#28) of NIOS and Channel Kishore Manch (#31) of NCERT. Now, the subject experts are able to connect for the Live telecast of SWAYAMPRABHA through the SKYPE from their home.

The learners can watch the lesson based educational programs on these DTH Channels and NIOS YouTube channel 6 hours of recorded broadcast from 7.00AM to 1.00PM followed by 6 hours of Live session from 1.00PM to 7.00PM with four different subject experts for one and half hour session each. Learners can ask questions directly to the subject experts from their home through phone call on the number displayed during Live session and through 'Student Portal' of NIOS web site directly in live telecast.

On the request of the Union Minister for HRD Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Union Minister of I&B Sri Prakash Javadekar Tata Sky and Airtel DTH operators have agreed to air three Swayam Prabha DTH channels on their DTH platform. Now these three Swayam Prabha DTH channels are available through all DTH service providers besides DD-DTH and Jio TV App. People can request their DTH 'Service Provider' for these channels without any extra cost as these are free to air channels. The learners can continue their education and learning even sitting at home in this difficult situation arisen due to unfortunate outbreak ofCOVID-19.

The channel number in different DTH service providers are as follows:

• In Airtel TV: Channel # 437, Channel # 438 & Channel # 439
• In Videocon: Channel # 475, Channel # 476, Channel # 477
• In Tata sky: Channel # 756 which pops up window for Swayam Prabha DTH channels.
• In Dish TV: Channel # 946, Channel # 947, Channel # 949, Channel # 950

SWAYAM PRABHA is an effective tool of learning for those who do not have internet access at their home. The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. Every day, there will be new content for at least (4) hours which would be repeated 5 more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. The INFLIBNET Centre maintains the web portal. All 32 channels are available at DD DTH and JIO TV mobile App.

9-Jul-2017: SWAYAM portal launched

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee attended the launch of SWAYAM, 32 SWAYAM Prabha DTH Channels and National Academic Depository at the National Convention on Digital Initiatives organized by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in New Delhi.  

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the spread of technology, telecom penetration and internet has offered an opportunity to quell the divide in terms of access and quality. And, we should seize this opportunity with both our hands. Digital technology enables good teachers to directly teach large number of students who are not physically present in classes. ICT solutions offer an interactive learning experience through which students in remote parts of the country can benefit from lectures of the top teachers. The digital modes are cheaper, more easily accessible, interactive, and offer flexibility for people to learn at their own pace. We need to work together to ensure that they are widely adopted for teaching. 

The SWAYAM portal has become fully functional which enables one to take courses offered by the best teachers, remaining where they are. SWAYAM should be a call to the pioneers amongst teachers to put new courses in the upcoming areas on this platform in the MOOCs format. It is also a call to the other teachers to use this material and improve their own teaching capacity. Ultimately, it should lead to better attainment levels in the students. 

The use of satellite technology to reach the unreached is time-tested. The scale and reach of this technology has been raised manifold through the 32 SWAYAM Prabha DTH channels. These channels will help students in the rural areas and in the remote areas where IT infrastructure have not penetrated so well. 

The National Academic Depository would help in easy authentication of the credentials issued by the institutions. This would also help in increasing transparency and ease of operation. The several other digital initiatives taken up under the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) being showcased today should help all in going the digital way in order to improve the quality of teaching.

About SWAYAM

SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged. SWAYAM seeks to bridge the digital divide for students who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy.

This is done through a platform that facilitates hosting of all the courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. All the courses are interactive, prepared by the best teachers in the country and are available, free of cost to any learner. More than 1,000 specially chosen faculty and teachers from across the country have participated in preparing these courses.

The courses hosted on SWAYAM are in 4 quadrants – (1) video lecture, (2) specially prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and (4) an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts. Steps have been taken to enrich the learning experience by using audio-video and multi-media and state of the art pedagogy / technology.

Courses delivered through SWAYAM are available free of cost to the learners, however learners wanting a SWAYAM certificate should register for the final proctored exams that come at a fee and attend in-person at designated centres on specified dates. Eligibility for the certificate will be announced on the course page and learners will get certificates only if this criteria is matched. Universities/colleges approving credit transfer for these courses can use the marks/certificate obtained in these courses for the same.