No Satellite signal for a year, no education

No Satellite signal for a year, no education

Nashik: In tribal Gadchiroli, the satellite link connecting hundreds of students to the world of virtual learning has snapped. Even as ISRO plans to set up a statewide virtual hub at the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) in Nashik, its tribal students have started at blank screens across numerous virtual centres for nearly a year now.

“Last year, we ran BA and B.Com programmes through the satellite uplink for 15 days,” says Prof B.P.Barde, in-charge of the Aheri centre in Gadchiroli. “Since then there has been no enrolled any student for the MPSC programme. And even the 250 odd students pursuing various courses with us are not benefiting from the virtual classes in other parts of the state.”

Besides Gadchiroli, Bhandara Gondiya and parts of Kolhapur are also not receiving a clear signal from EDUSAT. “The programme has simply shut down,” says Bhupesh Gulhane, manning YCMOU’s Nagpur regional centre.

In the Konkan region, frequent rainfall has also affected the ongoing Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) coaching being provided through virtual classrooms.

While 900 students have taken admission to these courses this session, centres that have lost their signals have not enrolled any student in the MPSC and MA (Sociology) programmes. Some have referred their applicants to other centres. According to YCMOU officials, the problem began earlier this year after they were shifted from the national signal being provided the INSAT-3B and moved to EDUSAT’s KU Band, presently being used for the western region (including Rajasthan and Gujarat). “We have asked to be shifted to the C Band for national uplinking since the present system is not reaching out to our entire centre,” explains Vice-Chancellor Rajan Welkur. “Our proposal is in the process and hope the problem will be solved soon.”

ISRO’s Development & Educational Communication Unit (DECU) in-charge Hansa Joshi says, “There have been problems in places where beams are overlapping. Since we are planning to create a virtual hub YCMOU and to and optimize their EDUSAT utilization, we are in the process of transferring them to the C band, which has better reception. The process should be completed a month.”

At present there are 75 virtual learning classrooms run by YCMOU in the state, of which 44 are interactive.

YCMOU was chosen in the first phase of the EDUSAT programme along with Karnataka’s Visveswaraiah Technological University and the Rajiv Gandhi Technical University in Madhya Pradesh.

Exclusively For Education: EDUSAT, launched in 2004, is the first exclusive satellite meant for the educational sector at school, college, and higher levels, besides non-formal education. It provides audio-visual lessons employing Direct to Home (DTH) quality broadcast.

The satellite has multiple regional beams covering different parts of India – five KU band transponders with spot beams covering northern, north-eastern, eastern, south and western regions and six C-band transponders with their footprints covering the entire country.

No Satellite signal for a year, no education

Related Web Pages

No Satellite signal year no education |  tribal Gadchiroli |  Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University YCMOU |  ISROs Development Educational Communication Unit DECU |