Pie in the sky
The Indian Express : Sat May 25 2013, 03:51 hrs
Government still doesn't get it. Aakash is no panacea for the problems in education
Unveiled as a proud tribute to Indian inventiveness, Aakash, the Central government's $35, low-cost tablet intended to bridge the divide between digital haves and have-nots, has been beset with problems from the outset. After years of trying and failing to meet the goals set for Aakash's success, the HRD ministry appeared to have divested its interest in the project, going by recent noises about how a focus on hardware as a cure for everything that ails the education system is misplaced. Yet, former HRD minister Kapil Sibal, whose brainchild it was, has now ridden to a most unwanted rescue. He has sought intervention from the PMO to address the procurement problems that have hobbled Aakash.
The fundamental problem with Aakash stems from its original ambition of being a nationalist response to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which was aimed at providing children in developing countries with cheap laptops. The techno-utopianism that motivates such policies assumes that access to technology can, in and of itself, address the inadequacies in education delivery. It ignores questions of whether Aakash can compensate for bad teachers, or overcome the limitations posed by a lack of basic infrastructure in many parts of the country.
Like OLPC before it, Aakash privileges the tool over the outcome it is meant to achieve. And in Aakash's case, the insistence on the indigenous aspects of the project distracts from the conversation on transforming education, however misdirected it might be, turning it into a discussion on the merits of homegrown innovation instead. Affordable computing is a laudable goal. But why must the government get into the business of consumer electronics?
