Introduction
Some educationists in India seem to be of the view that the use of media in the
developing countries is a costly fashion and an unjustified imitation of what has been or
is being done in the developed countries. Being ignorant about the potential of a
particular medium or the judicious combination of two or more media of instruction, they
adopt a negative stance towards the use of media in education.
These days use of media is an essential component of teaching-learning strategies to
achieve various national goals—socioeconomic and cultural. This, however, is not to
say that media alone can achieve all the educational goals and solve all the problems
faced by educational systems. Nor do I suggest that a medium is a magic box of tricks
which ensures cent per cent learning amongst the learners. My contention is that media add
to the efficiency as well as effectiveness of teaching-learning process both in the case
of face-to-face and distance education situations.
In this paper, the discussion is focussed on television as a medium of instruction for
distance education in India. I shall try to analyse the possibility of imparting televised
instruction throughout the country. My main concern is to reflect on the historical
overview, coverage, distribution and quality of television products.
The Context
India is one of the few developing countries that has made revolutionary strides in
modernising communication techniques. The last two decades, in particular, have been very
innovative, productive and imaginative. Only a few years back, India joined the Space Club
when it launched its own satellite making it possible to reach the remotest of villages in
far-flung areas. The use of satellite has made it possible to provide live coverage of
national and international events. With the development of TV, a new chapter of
transmitting sound and vision simultaneously has been added to the already widening circle
of transmission systems. It has been accepted and perceived as a medium of communicating
socially desirable messages, as also programmes of information and entertainment value.
The socialising effect of television is widely recognised and continuous efforts are being
made to improve the telecast, qualitatively and quantitatively.
Television entered India three decades ago on September 15, 1959 (Audience Research
Unit, 1991)1 as a pilot project funded by the Ford Foundation. It started with 20 TV
receivers in and around Delhi. and transmitted one hour educational and developmental
programmes twice a week. Over the years, the coverage of television remained static. In
other words the emphasis was on consolidation rather than expansion. The coverage of Delhi
transmitter and the duration of telecast, however, increased. Thirteen years later the
second television centre came into existence at Bombay on October 2, 1972. Between 1972
and 1975, four more Doordarshan Kendras (Television Centres)—Srinagar (January
26, 1973), Calcutta (August 9, 1975), Madras (August 15, 1975) and Lucknow (November 27,
1975) were commissioned.
A significant landmark in the history of television in India was the one year Satellite
Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) launched on August 1, 1975 involving 2330
villages of the economically backward states. An American satellite was extensively used
to telecast messages to promote the socioeconomic development of rural viewers, through
intensive communication. The available resources—human and machine—were fully
mobilised to make the experiment a success. However, the enthusiasm created by the SITE
could not be sustained in the subsequent post-SITE part of the project. However, in the
mean time television went colour in India on August 15, 1982.
On the eve of the Asian Games in November 1982, Doordarshan (Television India)
gave wide coverage to sports events through 21 low-power transmitters (LPTs) commissioned
at different locations in the country (this was the first time when LPTs were used to
receive and transmit visual messages). This was possible with the services rendered by the
Indian National Satellite (INSAT-1A) which became defunct in a very short period of time.
Failure of INSAT-1A, of course, impeded the expansion process. It was however restored by
operationalising INSAT-1B on October 15, 1983. Thereafter, the speedy installation of
transmitters has been a record performance and has made Doordarshan one of the
largest networks in the world (Audience Research Unit, 1991)1.
Indigenous communication satellite has given ample scope for the expansion of Doordarshan—quantitatively
and qualitatively, as important events such as Non-Alignment Movement (NAM), Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM), etc. were successfully covered and telecast in many
countries. Besides adding to the number of transmitters, coverage of INSAT areas, national
programmes, regional news, second channel, teletext service, linkage of terrestrial
transmitters with State capitals, unmanned very low-power transmitters (VLPTs), morning
and afternoon telecast, etc., were introduced in a phased manner. All these developments
however indicate that the major expansion was in the area of hardware. No adequate
attention was paid to improve the software part proportionately.
Educational programmes constituted a part of the telecast from the very beginning of
regular television service in the country. At present, supplementary educational
programmes are being telecast for the students at the primary, the secondary and the
higher educational levels. But, we have just begun, as is brought out clearly in the
following section.
The Programmes
From the very beginning, television has been perceived as a potential tool for
imparting education and as an agent for social change. While inaugurating the first pilot
Doordarshan service on September 15, 1959, the then President of India commented:
'I hope, television will go a long way in broadcasting popular outlook and greatest
advantages of scientific discoveries........' (Doordarshan India, 1984)2
Today's telecasts constitute a variety of programmes, of which I focus on informative
and educational programmes.
Informative programmes
Informative programmes include news bulletins, political events, economic data,
scientific, cultural and social messages. These programmes have great relevance for
distance education. These enlighten distance learners about important contemporary events
and are helpful in effecting better understanding of their courses. The recent coverage of
the crises in USSR and Yugoslavia, for instance, gave the students of political science
up-to-date supplementary information about the recent socio-political transformation in
socialist countries.
Another advantage of these informative programmes is to inform distance learners about
the various academic activities of the institutions to which they are attached.
Information about admissions, examinations, tutoring, counselling etc., can be passed on
to the learners instantly. Moreover, such information can be transmitted at national,
regional or local level in the learners' own languages and even in their dialects. For
example, if we want to communicate in Marathi, we can do so through Bombay, Kendra (Bombay
Centre) which is linked with all the transmitters in Maharashtra. Or if we want to inform
villagers of Chhatisgarh region (Madhya Pradesh) in their own dialect, we can do so
through Raipur Kendra. Today, all this is possible in India through the use of
satellite-based communication and terrestrial transmitter network.
One of the important devices for transmitting data/information is the teletext
facility, which is now available in our country. Teletext is a potential source of
information for distance learners scattered throughout the country—from a
metropolitan city to a remote village. This facility is available to:
- those consumers who have 'decoder' facility, as they can recall and retain information
on their television screen as and when they want to have it; and
- the general public on Channel II in normal mode which does not require the decoder
device.
Teletext service is being used for certain commercial purposes—giving information
on current affairs, railway and airline services, sports, etc. So far no effort has been
made to use teletext service for educational purposes.
Educational programmes
As already mentioned, two types of educational programme are telecast—formal
education and developmental education—currently.
Formal Education Progammes:
These programmes are intended primarily to educate learners. They are related to
specific curricula, say those of the school or the university. These programmes are
primarily supplementary in nature, and provide enriching experiences for the learners.
Thus, these programmes, as additional sources of information, support face-to-face
teaching or printed text materials available to distance learners. Indira Gandhi National
Open University is moving towards certain other uses of television—complementary and
integrated programmes. This venture, however, will take time to come through.
Nowadays, Doordarshan telecasts the following types of formal education programme:
- Educational Television (ETV): These programmes cater to primary school children of 5-11
year age group. ETV enrichment programmes are planned, produced and evaluated by the
Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) and its counterparts in States (SIETs).
The programmes are telecast by Doordarshan through satellite in the children's
instructional languages. Primary school children view these programmes on community sets.
An ETV capsule of 45 minutes duration consists of two programmes of 20 minutes each with
five minutes changeover time. The first programme of the capsule caters to the lower age
group—5-8 year old children (grades 1, 2, and 3) and the second programme to the
upper age group of 9-11 year old children (grades 4 and 5). Five minutes are given for
changeover from one group of children to another. Topics for ETV programmes are selected
from the primary school syllabus. Preference is given to those topics which are difficult
to teach in a classroom situation, and also those which are suitable for the visual
medium. ETV programmes are produced in Hindi and thereafter dubbed in four
languages—Telugu, Oriya, Marathi and Gujarati for the children of Andhra Pradesh,
Orissa, Maharashtra and Gujarat States respectively. The programmes in Hindi are telecast
by all transmitters in Hindi speaking States—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Besides, the above mentioned Doordarshan Kendras
(Television India Centres), Delhi and Bombay also produce and telecast (through
terrestrial transmitters) ETV programmes for the children of their coverage areas.
After
viewing numerous educational programmes telecast for rural primary school children, I
found that most of the programmes depicted the urban environment and the content was
directed to urban viewers, in terms of language, pacing and the concepts being taught. The
reasons for this are the location of the programme production centres and limited
resources. As the programme producers display the sociocultural background of the urban
children, the programmes fail to address rural children who, on their part, find the
programmes irrelevant to their immediate environment. This phenomenon is detrimental to
the utilisation of ETV programmes in rural areas where their utility remains doubtful even
today.
- School Television (STV): STV programmes, started on October 24, 1961, are meant for
students of the secondary and the higher secondary schools. These programmes are produced
and telecast by Doordarshan. As per information available, four Doordarshan
Kendras—Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Srinagar, are engaged in the production of STV
programmes for the students of their respective coverage areas. These programmes are
strictly syllabus-based and are telecast during school hours.
The main objectives of
STV service are twofold:
- to teach science subjects and thus improve the quality of instruction in sciences, and
- to overcome the dearth of adequately qualified secondary school teachers.
- Higher Education Television (HETV): In order to bring qualitative and quantitative
improvements in higher education, the University Grants Commission (UGC) launched HETV
programmes, known as 'Country-wide Classroom', on August 15, 1984. These programmes are
produced in English by Mass Communication Research Centres set up by the UGC at various
universities such as Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi; Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad;
Roorke University, Roorke etc. The programmes produced by various production institutions
are pooled by the UGC for reviewing their quality and handling them over to Doordarshan
for telecast.These one hour UGC programmes are telecast through satellite all over the
country from 12.00 p.m. to 1.00 p.m. and the same programmes are repeated in the afternoon
(4.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.) for wider coverage. The programmes vary in subject
areas—languages, social sciences. engineering, technology, sciences, etc. HETV
broadcasts also include a number of programmes produced by for eign countries.
- Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU): Besides the printed text and occasional
face-to-face contact sessions, IGNOU course-materials include audio and video cassettes,
which are available for use at study centres and also on sale for home study. For optimum
utilisation of these audio-video components, IGNOU telecasts its video programmes for half
an hour, thrice a week, from 6.30 a.m. to 7.00 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for
those IGNOU students who would otherwise not have an opportunity to take advantage of
these programmes.
Most of the IGNOU programmes supplement the printed texts—the master medium of
learning—and cater to a specific group of learners. Of course, the general public can
also view these IGNOU programmes, and they do so with great interest.
- Teachers' Programmes: In order to make the primary school teachers aware of the
innovations in teaching-learning processes, management of televised instruction, child
psychology, etc., the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) produces
programmes for teachers, known as 'Hints for Teachers'. Each programme of 45 minutes is
telecast on every Saturday during school hours in their respective languages of
instruction, as in the case of ETV. Besides, Doordarshan Kendra, Bombay also
telecasts a 20-minute programme for teachers every week. The assumption is that an average
teacher can improve his performance with the help of these programmes. Except STV, all the
formal education programmes are planned and produced by various expert institutions under
the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Formal education programmes constitute a
little more than 3 per cent of the total telecast time per week according to the latest
information available, Doordarshan uses 1500 programme hours per week (Audience
Research Unit, 4991). The details about the duration of the respective telecasts is given
in Table 1.
| Table 1: Formal Education Programmes:
Hours Per Week |
| Programme |
INSAT |
Delhi Kendra |
Bombay Kendra |
Madras Kendra |
Srinagar Kendra |
Total Hours |
| ETV |
15.00 |
0.40 |
1.20 |
- |
- |
17.00 |
| STV |
- |
8.40* |
3.45 |
3.00* |
1.20** |
16.45 |
| HETV |
10.00* |
- |
- |
- |
- |
10.00 |
| IGNOU |
1.30 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1.30 |
| For Teachers |
0.45 |
- |
0.20 |
- |
- |
1.05 |
| Grand Total |
46.20 |
| * It includes repeat telecasts also. **
STV remains closed during winter. |
Developmental Education Programmes: These programmes are intended to bring about
cultural, social and economic development among the masses, especially the underprivileged
sections of the society such as villagers, women and children. The development areas which
are generally supported by mass media are agriculture and allied fields, health and
hygiene, mass literacy, social education and the like.
A bi-weekly developmental education programme, entitled Krishi Darshan
(Agriculture on TV), was introduced in Delhi on January 26, 1967. For the first time
community television sets were used to disseminate messages on agriculture and allied
subjects such as poultry, fishery, piggery, small scale agriculture-based industries, etc.
Teleclubs were formed in order to ensure utilisation of television programmes. Krishi
Darshan programmes continue to be telecast five days a week.
Developmental education was a prime component of SITE programmes. Messages on
agriculture, health and hygiene, family welfare, social education, etc., were presented on
community sets to large audiences, and research studies on SITE point to the positive
impact of television-based developmental education on rural viewers.
After eight years of post-SITE programme, India launched her own satellite (IN SAT) and
started telecasting developmental education programmes regularly. These area specific
programmes of 35-40 minutes duration in regional languages are now being telecast through
satellite five days a week for the viewers of Ranchi, Gorakhpur, Nagpur, Sambalpur, and
Rajkot INSAT service areas.
The Coverage
As stated earlier, about three decades ago, a transmitter with a coverage area of a few
kilometers was commissioned in Delhi. For two decades—from 1959 to
1980—television expansion remained confined to some important urban places only. The
geographical coverage of television broadcasting in India did not reach beyond the
vicinity of a few urban clusters. The territorial spread of television programmes was
hampered by the high cost of television sets, lack of variety in telecasts, and lack of
technical (transmission) facilities in various regions.
From 1983 onwards unprecedented expansion of terrestrial transmitters (mostly LPTS)
took place as operationalisation of Indian National Satellite (INSAT) and installation of
ground facilities (earth stations and terrestrial transmitters) resulted in extensive
reach of television services. 1984 and 1989 were the years of commendable achievements,
when respectively 123 and 229 transmitters were commissioned. Data regarding the expansion
in this area are shown in Figure 1.
Most of the big cities in the country have been put on the Doordarshan map of
India. According to the latest data available, Doordarshan has a network of 523
transmitters all over the country estimated to cover 78 per cent of the population and 57
per cent of the area. Doordarshan authorities are planning to install more
transmitters in uncovered, critical, remote, hilly and far flung areas having low density
of population. Through such a plan, it will be possible to bring scattered populations
into the main stream of social developmental programmes.
We should not forget that, in spite of this unprecedented expansion, television in
India is still an elite mass medium heavily concentrated in urban areas (Singhal
& Rogers, 1989).3 Nevertheless, the telecast of serials like 'Ramayana' and
'Mahabharat' has motivated villagers all over the country to increase their access to this
medium. As a result, a number of antennas are visible in villages these days. Now, a
television set is a status symbol among villagers, and interestingly, it has become a
common dowry item too.
Distribution
Doordarshan telecasts its programmes through two types of distribution
systems—domestic and community viewing schemes. Under the domestic viewing systems, a
viewer watches programmes in his/her house or the place of work. Due to extension in
coverage and duration of television broadcasts, the number of domestic television sets
increased tremendously. Moreover, the liberal policy of the Government motivated
industrialists engaged in manufacturing electronic gadgets to shift to the production of
television sets. As a result, as against 41 sets in 1962, the number has reached 27.82
million by 1990. The increase in the number of television sets from 1980 has been shown in
Figure 2.
The second system of distribution of programmes is the community viewing scheme.
Realising the importance of television programmes for rural development, media planners
decided to extend television facility to rural viewers who were not in a position to buy a
television set for themselves. Thus to give a wide coverage to educational programmes,
50,032 community sets have been installed at public places, mostly in primary schools. The
sets are supposed to be used for ETV programme telecasts during school hours and for
developmental programmes for adult viewers in the evenings. It is strongly recommended
that to reach the learners living in remote rural areas—open universities should make
use of community sets. As I mentioned earlier, every community viewing centre can function
as a mini-study centre where learners, besides viewing television programmes, can gather
information through teletext and discuss their pedagogic problems with colearners. The
custodian teachers who have been given the resp onsibility to manage televised instruction
for primary school children, can also work for open universities provided they are given
some incentives. Conversely, study centres started by some universities/institutions can
function as community viewing centers for distance learners. The possible use of
television programmes as a multimedia package, is shown in Figure 3.
A third scheme for the distribution of audio-visual component of a multimedia study
package is the video cassette technology which is not so popular in the education sector
in India because of the high cost of video cassette recorders/players (VCRs/VCPs) and the
nonavailability of educational programmes on cassettes. Only about four per cent of the
households, mainly in major cities in India possess VCRs. IGNOU is the first educational
institution in the country to make use of video cassettes for teaching-learning purposes
of its learners. VCR facility is made available at study centers scattered all over the
country. All the distance learners, however, do not have easy access to study centres
where VCR facility has been provided by the university. The before, even for IGNOU the
video cassette is of limited utility today.
Formative Evaluation
If we want to make use of television programmes to improve pedagogical transactions, we
should adopt strategies to exploit the potential of the media. One of the strategies is
the use of formative evaluation in planning, developing, producing and utilising
educational television programmes. Research inputs can sensitisc planners, producers and
teachers about the range of students' reactions to programmes and the variables which
affect them, and thus provide better understanding of the complexities of the
communication process as a whole (Kemelfield, 1977).4
"If Indian TV is to meet its well defined objectives in the field of education,
family planning, health and agriculture, it will need the backing of a strong and
comprehensive programme of research into programme content and forms and their suitability
to the Indian situation. There is also the need to develop a feedback and evaluation
system designed to ensure continuing effectiveness." (Mullick 1977).5
The idea of systematic formative evaluation in India was developed during Satellite
Instruction Television Experiment (SITE) by the Space Applications Centre (SAC),
Ahmedabad. A small team of formative researchers was trained and put on the job under
SITE-Continuity Research Cell. The team was posted at Upagrah Doordarshan Kendras
(Satellite Television Centres) at Delhi, Hyderabad, Cuttack and Ahmedabad (Kheda
Communication Project-KCP). After four and a half years the team (except KCP) was
administratively transferred (functionally the team had already been working for Doordarshan)
to Doordarshan through a memorandum of understanding between the Indian Space
Research Organisation and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of
India. The main function of the team was to provide research inputs for educational
programmes-formal and developmental. Unfortunately, the system did not work and died out
without showing any tangible output/impact. The causes of this failure are not far to
seek-poor leadership, lack of clear guidelines and policy decisions on research based
production, lack of support from the heads of programme production centers, lack of
adequate training facilities, lack of initiative on the part of producers and researchers,
low status of researchers and lack of administrative will are obviously the most visible
of these causes. The propaganda, that formative evaluation is a costly affair as it
requires a lot of equipment, was floated in Doordarshan by those with whom the idea did
not click. These factors demotivated the already demoralised team of researchers. As a
result the formative research team moved to summative research as its main activity.
This was not the case with Doordarshan alone. Formative evaluation could not get
due attention of the administrators of other programme production institutions either.
Institutions such as CIET, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), and Film and
Television Institute of India (FTIT) could have set the trend and developed workable
systems of producing research based programmes to achieve educational objectives, but they
could not. It should be mentioned here that all these institutions have their own research
units. A Television Research and Prototype unit was started at FTII, Pune, in July 1975
with the main objective of developing, through research and experimentation, television
programmes suitable for Indian situations. The unit also aimed at improving the production
system itself through regular feedback and evaluation. The unit worked on research
techniques and programme formats for sometime, but the contributions of this unit are not
visible in the actual production of any televi sion programmes.
Obviously, there is an opportunity for open universities to take the initiative. It is
time for open education institutions to activate and strengthen in-house formative
research for improving the quality of television programmes. Research and evaluation can
be inserted in a pragmatic way in the day-to-day production and broadcasting operations of
these institutions. There should be clear guidelines for incorporating research inputs
into programme related decisions. Having said this, the following suggestions in this
connection are in place here:
- To see that formative evaluation is effectively used in producing quality programmes, we
should develop a training module for all those who are involved in planning, producing and
evaluating programmes. The producer, being the overall in charge of programme production,
should be thoroughly trained in utilising research findings and thereby producing research
supported programmes.
- Unfortunately, there is no training programme/institution for formative evaluation. Open
universities engaged in the production of audio-visual programmes can come forward to
formulate suitable training strategies. IGNOU being a premier institution and the largest
consumer of educational media, can set the example for the rest of the institutions
including Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR). IGNOU has expertise in both
research and production, and is equipped to undertake training courses of various
durations and types.
- Researchers should be adequately exposed, not only to research methodology, but to the
process of producing programmes for education and development, i.e., they should have
expertise in researching, planning, scripting, producing and editing programmes.
- The researcher should be good not only in drafting a report but also in putting research
findings in such a way that the producer concerned can make use of research inputs to
improve the quality of programmes.
- To encourage communication between a producer and a researcher, they should be allowed
to interchange each other's positions. A researcher should be able to work as a producer
and vice versa. I feel that a researcher, or an academic for that matter, should be
trained as a producer, for I am convinced of the fact that subject experts would be able
to produce more effective programmes in the areas of their specialisation. This view
appears to be worthy of experimentation.
The Utilisation
There are two ends of any media-based education the source end and the receiving end.
The source end is responsible for planning, producing and telecasting programmes while the
receiving end takes care of utilisation of the programmes. But experience reveals that
utilisation of programmes is nobody's business/concern. The source end - media planners,
producers, researchers/academics, feel that the success of television programmes in terms
of their utilisation is not their responsibility. Research studies (Shah:
1972;6 Phutela:
1980;7 IIMC:1983; 8 Singh and
Singh:1983;9 Malik:1986;10 Joshi:198811) reveal that the utilisation of
community television, the day time educational programmes as well as the evening
developmental programmes, is very poor. Reasons for this state of affairs vary from poor
quality of programmes, poor maintenance of the community sets, frequent electricity
failure, indifferent attitude of user teachers to lack of support or background material,
lack of incentives to the teachers, lack of interest among educational and media
administrators, etc. The net result is that community television sets, like other teaching
aids, are lying idle in the schools.
Recently in Rajasthan, I got the opportunity to visit about one hundred rural primary
schools equipped with community sets. To look into the problems of school telecast (ETV),
I discussed the operation of television sets with custodian teachers and school children.
In the first instance the majority of teachers admitted that they had been operating the
sets regularly and the children were benefited by the programmes. Further, the official
records maintained by the custodian teachers showed 'high' operation of the television
sets. Again, in a questionnaire response also, they were positive about the regular
operation of the sets. However, later on, during discussions, they agreed that because of
a number of constraints, they could not operate the television sets. The factual position
was revealed by school children who categorically stated that television sets were not
being operated at all. I do not want to say that the fault is that of custodian teachers
only. They too face g enuine problems. There is a lesson here - I want to caution
researchers who collect and analyse data on utilisation to beware of distortions of
figures pertaining to utilization.
Like ETV, STV and HETV programmes are also not being utilised optimally by students.
Televised instruction has become static—programmes are being produced and telecast
without looking into the objectives to be achieved . No serious effort is being made to
improve the system. On the other hand, the Government is planning to extend the service to
more and more schools in rural and urban areas! VCRs are being provided to teachers for
educational purposes!
It is too early to comment on IGNOU telecasts. This is a different case, as IGNOU
programmes are syllabus based and cater to, besides general public, a special group of
learners. The programmes supplement the self instructional texts already despatched to
them. The use of television programmes however depends on the learners' access to the
television set, satisfaction of their needs, and also the quality of programmes.
The utilisation of educational programmes, whether minimum or optimum, reflects on the
perception of the user teachers and learners towards the programmes. Whether these
programmes are interesting enough, are helpful in the teaching-learning process, etc., are
considerations that affect the utilisation pattern.
By and large, television is being used as a routine and conventional resource. It has
failed to compete with other resources—printed text, face-to-face teaching,
laboratories, etc. In other words, television has yet to be taken and used as a powerful
resource to meet well-defined objectives. No educational telecast service ETV, STV or HETV
- has so far achieved substantially as an agent of improvement in our educational system.
A weak link in the utilisation of school telecast is the lack of communication among
those who are involved at the different stages of the entire process—planning,
producing, telecasting, evaluating and utilising the services. Media planners,
researchers, producers, engineers, educational administrators, teachers and learners are
confined to their watertight compartments. They hardly make any effort to sit together to
find ways and means for making television service a success. Broadcasters think that their
job is to produce and telecast programmes while teachers/educators think that they are not
concerned with these programmes. Producers prepare programmes without taking teachers and
learners into consideration or confidence. Even a producer and a researcher working in the
same institution do not talk to each other on the utilisation and quality of programmes.
They do not decide on any specific purpose to be achieved through the use of television.
The purpose should, obviously, be linked with the problems faced by the education sector
or with the changes we wish to bring about in our educational system. We have to use this
resource for a well-defined purposeful effect.
Whatever be the reasons, under utilisation of the programmes is a wastage of immense
proportions. No country can afford to waste a resource in such a way, as producing
programmes, particularly for television, requires costly resources.
Discussion
The discussion on and the analysis of facts indicate that India has the technological
infrastructure to reach and teach individual learners throughout the country. Due to the
service rendered by the indigenous satellite and the network of ground facilities, it is
possible to transmit television messages to most parts of the country. This feature of the
television medium has great implications for distance education system. Having presented a
general, though brief, review of the status of television service in India, let us now
consider the following suggestions to use television effectively for information,
instruction and education.
- Televised teaching should not be taken as a routine activity. Television, being
sophisticated and costly, should be used to effect existing educational practices
successfully over large areas and covering large numbers. It should be an integral part of
the national educational reform schemes, new teaching-learning approaches, new curriculum,
new textbooks, and new roles and training methods of teachers. It should be taken as a
challenge to and a potential competitor of the traditional teaching methods face-to-face,
printed books, blackboard, etc. The users, teachers and students, should know the reasons
and purposes for the introduction of televised instruction and everybody, as a team,
should ensure that the purposes are achieved substantially. For this, television needs to
be used intensively, so that outputs are tangible and explicit.
- Similar to the preceding suggestion, but moving a step ahead of it, distance education
institutions should undertake some experimentation, even on a small-scale, in
achieving/meeting specific objectives through the use of various electronic devices. For
example, teleconferences, talk-back facilities, electronic blackboard, teletext, etc., can
be used to make two-way communication a success. Fortunately, our scientists are capable
of providing talkback facilities through satellite. Talk-back facility at a few selected
study centres can be of great help to students-they can ask questions and get their
replies immediately. Talk- back facility can certainly enhance the effectiveness of
television-based teaching at a distance.
Videophone, enabling learners to see their tutors, may become one of the mass-selling
electronic products which may prove a very effective tool for pedagogic interaction. The
price and availability of such technology, however, will be an important deciding factor
for its educational use.
Satellite provides facilities for organising teleconferences. Space Applications
Centre, Ahmedabad, has done some experiments in organising teleconferences in the country.
It is therefore possible to organise periodic teleconferences for students engaged in
higher education.
The provision of teletext facility at domestic ' community and study centre viewing
venues can make distance education more efficient and lively. Distance education
institutions should come forward and exploit the potential of teletext service for
educational purposes. Two possibilities are quite obvious.
- Open universities have a network of study centres equipped with electronic devices.
Television sets available at study centres can be equipped with decoder facility.
Personnel at study centres—coordinators, counsellors, evaluators and students, can
recall relevant information transmitted for them. Students can come and make use of the
facility, as and when needed.
- As per the latest information available, there are 50,032 community television sets
installed at public places and in primary schools in rural areas including the
North-eastern region (Audience Research Unit, 1991). Thus on an average we have one
television set for 10 villages. Each community viewing centre can function as a
'mini-study centre' for distance learners and, for that matter, all villages. Those sets
can be equipped with the decoder facility. Besides viewing programmes telecast by the UGC
and the IGNOU, learners can seek relevant information through the teletext also. The
learners from nearby villages (without community sets) can also derive benefit from such a
facility.
Teletext service can overcome many administrative problems of all those who
are involved in teaching-learning activities. For this, Doordarshan and open
universities should come to an understanding about how best teletext may be used. At
regional levels, Regional Directors (in the case of IGNOU) can coordinate with local Doordarshan
Kendras and ensure that information about admissions, examinations, despatch of
courses, counselling, etc. is transmitted timely.
- One of the main objectives of an open learning institution is to make education more
accessible to a large section of society. Community viewing scheme (CVS) can serve as a
nodal device for dissemination of information to an unlimited number of users at the grass
roots level. CVS should, therefore, be strengthened and streamlined by pooling the
relevant resources to create an appropriate learning environment, so that CVS may be an
appropriate venue for not only the distance learners of open universities but also the
various other teaching-learning activities, e.g., National Adult Education Project, Indian
Population Project, etc. Coordinated efforts by user agencies can make education easily
accessible to the learners at grass roots.
- Television is a potential medium of imparting training if it is properly planned and
implemented. Training, refresher and orientation courses for various functionaries of an
open university-course writers, counsellors, faculty, etc., can be conducted through
multi-media packages including television as an important component. The experience of
NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) in conducting training
programmes for primary school teachers should prove valuable for higher education as well.
Regular/continuous and/or periodic training courses also can be organised using TV as a
major medium.
- The in-house formative research should be strengthened to take definite decisions on the
design, development, dissemination, revision and evaluation of instructional materials.
This type of research in the Indian context will be more useful as we do not know much
about our target learners scattered all over the country. The same formative researchers
can undertake summative research also as per the requirements of the institution
concerned. A media committee/forum with a broad-base including media experts, technical
experts, educationists, etc., needs be formed to support and guide formative research
activities.
- It should be possible for IGNOU to reach its learners in neighbouring
countries—Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lank, etc. through satellite-based
broadcasts. But it needs favourable policy decisions by the Government of India, who have
already been thinking about beaming Indian television programmes to various countries of
West Asia. Doordarshan programmes are already being shown on Maldives television (Times of India, November 20, 1991).12
To conclude, though educational television has made reasonable progress in India, given
the economic and. technological constraints that the country works under, it is still in a
state of infancy—the potential of television as an educational medium has yet to be
realized fully, the related two-way access has yet to reach the desirable level and
educational reforms and innovations have yet to reach a stage that should see ETV in full
bloom. We have a long way to go.
Reference
- Audience Research Unit (1991) Television India, Directorate General, Doordarshan.
New Delhi, January 1991.
- Doordarshan India (1984) Silver Jubilee Souvenir brought out by the Directorate
General, Doordarshan, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
- Singhal, A. and Rogers, E.M. (1989) India's Information Revolution, Sage Pub.
India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi.
- Kemelfield, G. (1977) "Some Explorations in Research, Evaluation and
Decision-making in School Broadcast" in Evaluating Educational Television and
Radio, Bates, Tony and Robinson, John (eds.), The Open University Press, Milton
Keynes.
- Mullick, S.K. (1977) "Decision-Making: A Communication Strategy in TV Programme
Building" in Evaluating Educational Television and Radio, Bates, Tony and
Robinson, John (eds.), The Open University Press, Milton Keynes.
- Shah, M.C. (1972) The Scope, Utility and Limitations of Educational Television in
India, Unpub. Ph.D. Thesis, M.S. University, Baroda.
- Phutela, R.L. (1980) A Study into Utilisation and Comprehensibility of School
Television Programmes in Delhi (Mimeographed), NCERT, New Delhi.
- Indian Institute of Mass Communication (1983) An Assessment of Community Viewing and
Listening Scheme (mimeo.), New Delhi.
- Singh, J. and Singh, A.K. (1983) "Impact of Television In Primary Education", Communicator,
Vol. XIX (1).
- Malik, Saroj (1986) "Communication Strategy for Rural Television", paper
presented at the International Conference on Communication Technology, Development and
Third World, New Delhi.
- Joshi, Vibha (1988) The Effectiveness of School Television Programmes in Science at
Secondary School Level, Unpub. Ph.D. Thesis, M.S. University, Baroda.
- Times of India (1991) DD to be Beamed Abroad, November 20, 1991, New Delhi.
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