Leading educationist Dr Chenraj Roychand on Saturday said his vision is to make online education accessible to the poorest of the poor.
Roychand, Chancellor, Jain (Deemed-to-be University), said his institutes were developing online courses for a fee as meagre as Rs 150.
“Technology is going to reduce the divide between urban and rural areas. I have connected with more than one lakh rural students and we are giving them hybrid learning certificate courses and skill development courses. With just Rs 100 or Rs 200 we are developing their skills. Very few people can afford higher studies offline by paying a fee of Rs 1 lakh or Rs 2 lakh. We have to give education to the masses for a meagre amount, say Rs 150 to Rs 1000,” he said.
Roychand was addressing Techspectations Educate 2021, the fourth edition of Manoramaonline's digital summit.
“In three years you will find 10 million students getting access to online education at Rs 100 to Rs 300 from my side. That's my commitment to the nation. We will offer them skill development courses according to their requirements. We have created 10,000 programmes and another 10,000 are in the pipeline. As many as 10-20 million students will get access to these online courses and they will be equivalent to urban students who can match the skills,” he said.
He said he believed online education brings down cost of education by 95 per cent.
Techspectations Educate 2021, the one-day virtual event powered by Manoramaonline and Jain University, is deliberating on the theme of the evolving nature of education post pandemic.
Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan and Karnataka Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan were among a stellar line-up of speakers at the summit.
