Connecting Africa: IGNOU will be content provider

‘‘IGNOU has been chosen to provide the course content because it is one of the biggest systems in the world using information and communication technology to impart education,’’ said Professor S C Garg, IGNOU’s pro-vice chancellor.

The proposed system, being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will work something like this: there will be an undersea fibre-optic cabling from Cochin or Mumbai to Djibouti on the east coast of Africa. From Djibouti, programmes will be uplinked through a satellite to the receiving centres in all the 53 countries. ‘‘The satellite used would most probably be INTELSAT 904 that spans the whole African continent. In September-October 2006, Regional African Satellite Communication Organisation (RASCOM), a nodal institute of space research in Africa, plans to launch its own satellite which will enhance the quality of programmes received,’’ said Dr Sanjay Pandey, Deputy Director at the Vice Chancellor’s office in IGNOU. Pandey was part of the delegation that was in Addis Ababa from July 20 to 22 to interact with the African technical group.

‘‘I think the first major requirement of African nations in terms of course modules seems to be computer education and Information Technology followed by teacher training courses, management, nutrition, HIV AIDS, family education and science courses in some countries like Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya,’’ said Professor Garg.

Course material would be translated by IGNOU into French and Arabic, the languages widely understood there. The Ministry of External Affairs, through its ‘‘Aid to Africa’’ budget would fund US $50 million for the project, the technical network for which would be provided by Telecommunication Consultants of India Limited (TCIL).

There will be receiving nodes for tele-medicine and VVIP connectivity too across the five zones of the African Union. Through tele-medicine system, doctors there would be able to communicate with those in India and diagnose diseases. ‘‘The government is trying to involve super-speciality hospitals, including AIIMS, for the purpose,’’ said Pandey.

‘‘We are all set for the launch. African nations are in the process of identifying institutions, hospitals which will have collaboration with those here. Once we get a nod from the AU Secretariat, the project will take off,’’ said Pandey.