With the Centre vehemently pitching its digitalisation drive, the NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) is set to launch digital e-books for classes I to XII. Following this development, about 78 lakh students enrolled in Rajasthan schools can read NCERT ebooks for classes 1 to 12 in the new academic session (2017-2018). NCERT will upload these ebooks on the ePathshala mobile application, this April. The books will cover the syllabus of all education boards.
How will NCERT EBooks Benefit Rajasthan Students?
For those who don’t know, eBooks or Electronic Books are easily downloadable on smartphones, tablets and laptops. The biggest benefit is that you can easily download or purchase them and start reading them almost instantly. Students don’t have to hunt the market for their books. Also, they don’t have to wait for the latest editions to arrive. It takes just a few days for the new eBooks to arrive in the mail. This saves their study time.
Moreover, by digitalising the course books, it’ll be easier to explain the basics of tree and paper conservation to primary school kids.
NCERT has Plenty of Surprises in its Bag
Rajasthan Secondary Education board and NCERT have short-listed 36 Hindi and 17 English course books for digitalisation. The NCERT digital course books are developed on Coral and Ms Word. Therefore, non-technical teachers may not know how to use them.
A few days back, the NCERT has trained 20 master trainers for eBook instructions. These master trainers will teach the technicalities of eBook operation to government school teachers in Rajasthan. Special teacher training camps will be set up for this purpose.
Till date, NCERT has already uploaded about 370 coursebooks in 15 languages for other states. These eBooks have been viewed by 1 crore users and around 6 lakh copies have been downloaded by the students until now.
As of now, the NCERT mobile app developers are planning to link dictionary with their eBooks. With the successful incorporation of this feature, readers can find the meaning of difficult words, while reading the books.
Next, the group aims to upload course books for all Indian state boards by 31st March.
What’s Unique about NCERT eBook App?
The NCERT eBook application features 4 sections, one each for teachers, parents, trainers and students. Each section has unique benefits of its own. The app will not just have readable eBooks, but audio/video clips for quick revisions, as well. Moreover, there’s a tutorial for teachers that will cover quick tips on how to teach different subjects to the students.
For parents, the NCERT has created a special section dedicated to “Academic Results”. Through this app, the parents can monitor the progress of academic syllabus, anytime, anywhere.
By digitalising these books, the education board aims to connect more students to the digital drive. This will enhance their technical education, inculcate reading habits in kids and encourage more students to test their knowledge online.
