Ramya Venkataraman, founder & CEO of Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) Pvt. Ltd.

“This year’s Union Budget has proposed some big thrusts on education since it was one of the most impacted sectors in the Covid-19 pandemic, with schools remaining shut for over two years. The digital university announced in the budget can help students access great teachers from anywhere. This should be done in a public-private partnership mode for rapid implementation and supported by certified teachers from local communities, to provide direct inputs where needed. Such a hybrid ‘hub and spoke’ network can help impart world-class education to the most needy segments.

The PM eVIDYA scheme’s ‘one class, one TV programme’ initiative is an interesting effort to deliver educational programming via radio and DTH channels to people without internet access. The quality of explanations and associated support for doubts will play a big role in making this successful. We are working on the implementation of this with a State Government and exploring mechanisms like missed calls, answering questions through SMS, etc. to make such programmes interactive and therefore impactful, added Ramya.”