Television and Education
UGC's use of Television for Education
For over two decades University Grants Commission (UGC) of India has been using television for higher education. In 1984 UGC launched “UGC Countrywide Classroom” on Doordarshan –the National Network of Television in India. Specially designed educational television programs, either imported or locally produced, were telecast for the benefit of undergraduate and post graduate students across the country. The need for using television for higher education was necessitated due to enormous growth in student population in higher education and increase in number of higher educational institutions in the country but there was not enough matching growth in terms of proper infrastructure and quality manpower. Under the circumstances it was thought that television may be able to remove some of the disparities and make quality education available to the students irrespective of their location. A special cell, UGC INSAT Television Project, which later became Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) in 1993, was established to coordinate the production and transmission of educational television programs. For production of programs 17 Media Centers, equipped with latest production gadgets and quality manpower were also established in various Universities across the country. These centers produce educational television programs, involving university teachers and academics as subject experts and script writers. Both enrichment as well as syllabus oriented programs, produced by the media centers, are telecast on Doordarshan in UGC Countrywide Classroom (CWCR). Initially the programs were telecast for one hour during the day, with repeat telecast in the afternoon. But owing to growing commercialization the Doordarshan has reduced the CWCR time slot to half an hour and pushed the CWCR to early morning slot of 05:30am -06:00am. To enable students and teachers watch ETV programs in the colleges, UGC provided color
For over two decades University Grants Commission (UGC) of India has been using television for higher education. In 1984 UGC launched “UGC Countrywide Classroom” on Doordarshan –the National Network of Television in India. Specially designed educational television programs, either imported or locally produced, were telecast for the benefit of undergraduate and post graduate students across the country. The need for using television for higher education was necessitated due to enormous growth in student population in higher education and increase in number of higher educational institutions in the country but there was not enough matching growth in terms of proper infrastructure and quality manpower. Under the circumstances it was thought that television may be able to remove some of the disparities and make quality education available to the students irrespective of their location. A special cell, UGC INSAT Television Project, which later became Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) in 1993, was established to coordinate the production and transmission of educational television programs. For production of programs 17 Media Centers, equipped with latest production gadgets and quality manpower were also established in various Universities across the country. These centers produce educational television programs, involving university teachers and academics as subject experts and script writers. Both enrichment as well as syllabus oriented programs, produced by the media centers, are telecast on Doordarshan in UGC Countrywide Classroom (CWCR). Initially the programs were telecast for one hour during the day, with repeat telecast in the afternoon. But owing to growing commercialization the Doordarshan has reduced the CWCR time slot to half an hour and pushed the CWCR to early morning slot of 05:30am -06:00am. To enable students and teachers watch ETV programs in the colleges, UGC provided color