E learning: Bihar's share less than 2 pc

GAYA: Bihar students are not taking advantage of Union HRD ministry's initiative to provide quality text books and other learning material free of cost though its e PG Pathshala. The share of Bihar students in the list of registered e learners at the Post Graduate level is less than 2 pc.
As per available statistics more than 1700 learners all over the country have registered themselves with the e PG Pathshala.Of these 1700 Post Graduate level e learners, the number of registered knowledge seekers from Bihar is just 28.
Of these 28 registered learners, only 14 are students. The other e learners are either teachers from Bihar or other inquisitive people categorised as 'life long learner'. Six teachers and eight life long learners from the state have got themselves registered with e PG Pathshala.
Not only that, quite a few of the e Pathshala students registered with a Bihar address, are in fact studying outside the state. There students from institutions like Delhi University, BHU, Tata Institute of asocial Sciences and Hyderabad Central University have got a Bihar address to get registered with the e Pathshala.
What is more ironical is that Bihar students need more access to quality learning material as the state faces acute shortage of teachers and quality of teachers in the state too does not compare favourably at the national level.
About 60 pc of the post of University teachers in the state are vacant and vacancies increase every month as the teachers appointed in the late 1970s and 1980s have either retired or are on the verge of retirement. No appointment of university teachers has been made in the state since 2003. In 2014 more than 3000 post of university teachers were advertised but the appointment process is yet not complete.
Regretting the extremely poor participation of Bihar students, Prof Ranjit Verma, Professor of Chemistry Magadh University, presently PU Pro VC said that students from Bihar can not only read the standard books on computer but excel through self study using the multimedia and audio visual simulations etc.
Under this scheme, 500 to 550 modules are available on different topics of any subject. Each of the 71 subjects covered under this mega project is divided into 16 papers from the faculties of Arts, Humanities, Languages, Engineering, Technology, Life Sciences, Medical/ Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Basic and Physical Sciences.
Elaborating the virtues of e learning, Prof Arun Kumar, Vice Principal MG College, Gaya said that promising students have to be provided lap tops/good quality tablets and high speed internet connectivity to benefit from e learning opportunities. Such facilities, if properly administered can do lot of good to Bihar students, said Kumar.