Why in News?

• Over 41,000 women in Telangana’s Sangareddy district can now fell the power of the written word after learning the alphabet for the first time.

About:

• These women were home-schooled by their own children and have cleared the examination conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
• The NIOS exam is normally taken by 4,000 to 5,000 neo-literates from each district annually, but that number exceeded the norm ten times due to the Sangareddy programme for female literacy initiated by the then District Collector in 2017.
• The Saakshar Bharat Mission (SBM) imparts functional literacy and numeracy, but faced a shortage of coordinators. So, the Collector decided to rope in school children.
• In 2017, the district administration developed ‘Ammaku Akshara Mala’ (alphabet garland for mother) and roped in students in Classes VII to X.
• They were asked to teach their mothers to read and write the Telugu alphabet at home.
• Most women were part of Self-Help Groups but not literate. The administration identified 52,000 women as eligible to take the exam and sent the list to the Central government.
• Of 48,000 women who took the exam in March 2018, 41,000 passed in writing, reading and numerical skills. In a 15-day literacy module, the women were taught four letters of the Telugu alphabet in a day.

What is Operation Blackboard?

• Operation Blackboard is a centrally sponsored programme which was started in 1987 immediately after the Rajiv Gandhi National Policy on Education (NPE) of 1986 was released to supply the bare minimum crucial facilities to all primary schools in the country.

What is Operation Whiteboard?

• Simdega district of Jharkhand recently launched ‘Operation Whiteboard’ on the lines of ‘Operation Blackboard’ which was launched by the Government of India in 1981.
• The primary goal of the operation is to equip all the classrooms of the government schools of the district with whiteboards, hence ensuring ‘Freedom from Chalk Dust’ to the students as well as teachers.

Operation Digital Blackboard (ODB):

• ODB aims to have digital and interactive boards in every classroom, which is on the lines of Operation Blackboard which was started in 1987 to supply the bare minimum crucial facilities to all primary schools in the country.
• Introduction of the digital board all over the country in government and government aided schools from class 9th onwards as well as in higher education institutions, from the coming session of 2019 itself.
• University Grants Commission (UGC) will be the implementing agency for ODB in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It will be implemented as a Central scheme, as a loan from Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).
• At school level, Digital / SMART board will be provided in all Government and Government – aided schools by the Central Government in collaboration with the State and UTs.
• It aims at converting a classroom into a digital classroom.
• Ensure availability of e-resources at any time and at any place to students.
• It helps in provisioning of personalized adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.