Knowledge panel to take up plan on networking of schools

The Karnataka Knowledge Commission will soon take up a discussion on the plan to set up Karnataka Education and Knowledge Network in the institutes across the State.

Speaking at a function to launch virtual and smart classes at government colleges in the State here on Friday, K Kasturirangan, the head of the commission, said that the network would enable educational institutions to connect to best sources of knowledge.

 “There are 44 colleges per one lakh students in the State, higher than national average of 25 colleges one per lakh students. Also the GER (gross enrolment ratio) in Karnataka is 14.3 while the national figure of 11,” Kasturirangan said.

Talking about the need to bridge the urban-rural divide in education, he referred to the achievement of A S Kiran Kumar, who was recently appointed as the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. Tracing Kumar’s humble beginnings, Kasturirangan said that he would like see more Kiran Kumars.

The virtual and smart classes will be extended to 100 government first grade colleges in a few months. All 411 first grade government colleges will be covered in the coming years said an official from the Department of Collegiate Education.  

Under the programme, college students can supplement their learning via video lectures, e-books, that have all been put in computers. Already nearly 500 hours of video content on various subjects ranging from science, history to personality development has been downloaded that can also be accessed through a wifi network on one’s smartphones, tablets and laptops.