Team Herald
PORVORIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said that Centre has agreed to consider implementation of the BharatNet optical fibre broadband project in Goa through public private partnership model along with 16 other States. This will boost broadband connectivity, he added.
In order to provide access to the academic content pertaining to the course syllabus of UG programmes, the directorate of higher education has developed an online web portal DISHTAVO, which gives 24×7 accesses irrespective of the geographic location. At present, 13618 videos are recorded and 11491 videos are uploaded on DISHTAVO portal. Almost 70 per cent of the syllabus of the odd semester is covered under the DISHTAVO project and 80 per cent of the syllabus of even semester is covered under the same. DISHTAVO enhances flipped classroom learning, he said.
The schools are following various alternative communicative methods like worksheets, Whatsapp and meeting with parents and students in order to continue the learning process, he said.
Dr Sawant said that the Goa Broad Band Network (GBBN) cannot be used to provide Wi-Fi connectivity for schools due to low bandwidth. “We tried with five schools initially,” he said.
The Chief Minister also blamed the previous government for converting PPP model of GBBN from BOOT (build–own–operate–transfer) to BOO ((build–own–operate) model and as a result the State government had paid Rs 218crore to the UTL. Yet the infrastructure is not transferred to the government and is owned by the UTL due to folly in the PPP model adopted in 2009. “Because to this mistake the State government is paying Rs 20crore annually to GBBN and the UTL is bargaining for more,” he told the House.
After the Telecom Policy was announced, as many as 145 mobile tower operators applied for setting up of mobile towers and the work of erecting 60 to 70 towers are on.
The government has taken maximum effort to provide the best infrastructure to improve the connectivity. The government will also try for further improvement in the present financial year.
Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat had asked the government to prepare an academic action plan in consultation with experts and stakeholders. Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro also urged the government to constitute a committee comprising officers of the Information Technology and the Education Department and to prepare a road map to reach out to students.
The calling attention notice was jointly tabled by Kamat and MLAs Sudin Dhavalikar, Vijai Sardesai, Rohan Khaunte, Prasad Gaonkar and Vinold Paliencar.
