SWAYAM

Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) launched initiative of online professional

development of 1.5 million higher education faculty using mass massive open online course
(MOOC) platform SWAYAM Under its first phase of implementation, 75 discipline-specific
National Resource Centres (NRCs) have been identified

Key Facts

Under this initiative, all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority will get
opportunity to keep abreast of latest developments in their disciplines through technology based
online refresher course. The training materials will be uploaded and made available through
SWAYAM platform to all the teachers every year. NRCs will publish list of faculty who have
been certified by December, 2018. UGC will issue order and regulations for the purpose of
Career Progression and APIs.

National Resource Centres (NRCs)

These75 discipline-specific NRCS includes varied set of institutions under Ministry’s Pandit
Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) located in
Central Universities, IISc, IUCAA, IITs, IISERs, NITs, State Universities, UGC’s Human
Resource Development Centres (HRDCs), National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training
(NITTTRs), IIITs, Open Universities, These NRCs are tasked to prepare online training material
with focus on latest developments in discipline, new and emerging trends, pedagogical
improvements and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.

SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) programme

SWAYAM aims to bridge digital divide for students (especially most disadvantaged) who have
hitherto remained untouched by digital revolution and have not been able to join mainstream of
the knowledge economy. It is an indigenous developed IT platform that facilitates hosting of all
the courses, taught in classrooms from 9th grade till post-graduation. Courses hosted by it can be
accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time at free of cost. It objective is to achieve the three
cardinal principles of education policy – access, equity and quality. The interactive courses on
this platform are prepared by best teachers in the country.

SWAYAM Prabha-Educational Contents through DTH

Government has approved a project to launch the ‘SWAYAM Prabha’-a project for
operationalising 32 Direct to Home (DTH) Television Channels for providing high quality
educational content to all teachers, students and citizens across the country interested in lifelong
learning. There will be new content of four hours every day, which would be telecast six times a
day allowing the student to choose the time of his/her convenience.
The main features of SWAYAM Prabha would be as under:-
(i) Curriculum based course contents covering diverse disciplines such as arts, science,
commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities subjects, engineering, technology,
law, medicine, agriculture etc.

(ii) Covers all level of education: School education, undergraduate, postgraduate, engineering,
out of school children, vocational courses and teacher training. The 32 channels are proposed to
be launched before September 2016. Initially the programmes will be in English but with the
passage of time the programmes will be launched in regional languages also

Information collected by

Satyendra Choudhry (7696180020)