HRD Ministry launches E-pathshala, mobile app for students, teachers

New Delhi: Human Resource Development Ministry on Monday launched the mobile application e-pathshala, which has the concept of "learning on the go".

With the mobile application in place everything related to academics is made available online. Gone are the days when one would have to wait to get the textbooks or make do with the old ones due to short supply. And parents would wait for the half-yearly or annual exam results to know the progress of their wards.

App has segments for students, teachers, parents and educators

An app for all stake holders students, teachers and parents not only provides all the textbooks of NCERT online, which can be downloaded on the smart phone, one can also see recorded video lectures, and parents can check the learning outcomes of the students as well. Even educators can log in to get access to periodicals and teachers too can access teaching instructions.

According to TOI, "E-pathshala, which is available through a especially developed mobile app interface on Android, IOS and windows platforms, is broadly divided into four segments students, teachers, parents and educators. The resources are available in three languages English, Hindi and Urdu."

While agreeing that it is a good concept, principals feel that there are pros and cons for every technical intervention. Ameeta Mohan, principal, Amity International, Pushp Vihar said, "It will motivate students to log online and see the chapters. It will also be easier for parents, as well as for students who sometimes forget to bring the books to school. And the studious ones will make most of this application. However, the feel of the book cannot be replaced."

Tania Joshi, principal, The Indian School said, "Technology intervention is very good. But the question is how many parents and students are going to use this? When all the NCERT textbooks were digitised, my students downloaded them but then they said that the book is not there. The learning outcome based on such applications will not be far reaching right now, but there will be a time when everything will be online. But now, internet connectivity is not up to the mark and for this to be a success one has to improve the internet connectivity."

E-resources for students and teachers

For students, they get to access the e-books, audio/video tutorials and can keep track of the books they accessed, hours spent on a certain subject/ book and even bookmark the chapters studied. Teachers can download teaching manuals and curricular resources which are listed class and subject wise. Parents too can access the e-resources and the additional feature in this section is the learning outcome. The final stakeholder, the educators too can log into this application and get access to additional periodicals. Right now tertiary educational periodicals are available for educators.

TOI