The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) has been envisaged as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to leverage the potential of ICT in the teaching and learning process for the advantage of all the learners in pedagogy Institutions at any time, anywhere mode. This was expected to be a serious intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in instruction by 5 percentage points during the XI Five Year Plan period.
The three cardinal principles of Education Policy, viz., access, equity and quality, can be served well by providing connectivity to all or any colleges and universities, providing low-cost and affordable access-cum-computing devices to students and teachers and providing top-quality e-content freed from cost to any or all learners within the country. NMEICT encompasses all three elements. The Mission has two major components:
- Providing connectivity, together with provision for access devices, to institutions and learners;
- Content generation.
It seeks to bridge the digital divide, i.e. the gap within the skills to use computing devices for the aim of teaching and learning among urban and rural teachers/learners in the pedagogy domain and empower those, who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and haven’t been ready to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy. It plans to specialize in appropriate pedagogy for e-learning, providing the facility for performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners, utilization of obtainable Education Satellite (EduSAT) and Direct to Home platforms, training and empowerment of teachers to use the new method of teaching-learning etc., effectively.
