NEAT: Bridging the Digital Divide

The National Education Alliance for Technology -NEAT 3.0 is a scheme launched by the Ministry of Education. It is a public -private partnership model between All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) and Ed-tech companies.

Why the need?

MoE took the initiative noting that learning tools developed by Ed-tech platforms can be used to supplement classroom education. Companies are invited to showcase their products on a national portal developed for the learners who may procure them.

Aims

  • To bring the best technological product in education pedagogy on a single platform for convenience of learners.
  • To improve the employability of youth, develop employable skills and bridge learning gaps in low costs.
  • Improve the quality of learning through technologies solutions .
  • Through the portal 58 Ed-tech companies are offering their courses through NEAT, along with e-resources. Its scope include providing the courses that improve the learning of students in schools and Higher Education Institutions, vocational and upskilling courses. They range from accounting and finance to coding, including python.
  • It seeks to make the most use of Adaptive learning technologies to support personalized learning .

Also the courses offered are certification in marketable skills and do not qualify as degrees. Moreover the Government mandated Ed-tech platforms to provide free coupons to the extent of 25 percent of the total registration for their solutions.

Through this route ,government has created a bank of 12.15 lakh, and started distributing them. The distribution is among students belonging to SC/ST/OBC and EWS categories by using AI tools. Older students ,women are given preference.

Conclusion

NEAT 3.0 be a game changer in bridging digital divide especially among the economically disadvantaged students and also in fulfilling the knowledge based requirements of India. It is important to provide access to such portals to everyone .Follow the website NEAT (aicte-india.org) for more information .

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