Gopalpur CILLAGE

April 24, 2017
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I am glad that concept of the CILLAGE has now taken roots at Shri Vithal Education and Research Institute (SVERI) at Gopalpur near Pandharpur. The Gopalpur CILLAGE has following elements:

 

  • The Rural Human and Resource Development Facility (RHRDF) set up there has now become a self-sustainable training, demonstration, production and service centre for a number of technologies that are of benefit to rural people in the neighborhood and beyond. Apart from carrying out these functions based on technologies sourced from BARC for the benefit of local people, the facility is slowly taking shape as an innovation centre appropriate to the needs of the area. RHRDF has become a centre for collaborative work between developers (Mostly from BARC and now from SVERI. Soon we could expect technologies from other laboratories as well), end users from villages, RHRDF staff and other institutions with similar interests. RHRDF also is a hub that apart from implementing its own activities, also supports similar activities at a number of AKRUTI (Advanced Knowledge Based Rural Technology Initiative) centres in the neighborhood.
    Maharashtra Knowledge Foundation (MKF) joining hands with RHRDF/SVERI has added additional much needed strength to self-sustainability of RHRDF through professional support in terms of management, guidance in marketing and branding of products and services etc. More importantly, this arrangement could also synergize knowledge enabled development through MKF and technology enabled development through RHRDF leading to emergence of a more comprehensive development model.

 

  • SVERI faculty and students take up several R&D activities to resolve problems that arise in deployment of a technology as well as to address emerging local needs. Existence of several technologies deployed through SVERI/RHRDF lends a significant confidence and credibility to new R&D efforts in minds of local people. The Institute can now strive to develop very meaningful collaborations with eminent academic institutions from abroad, around development of low cost high-tech technology products of high relevance to our country in general and neighborhood in particular. Already the Institute has become a good source for other engineering colleges in rural domain to identify important project definitions. Over a period of time the Institute should emerge as an academic centre that does globally competitive research of high relevance to the neighborhood.

 

  • SVERI is also a host to ‘Shikshan Pandhari’ programme that is experimenting on technology enabled school education in rural areas. The programme is being implemented by MKF.
    A National Knowledge Network (NKN) node has been established at SVERI. A low cost long range broadband wireless transmitter at SVERI enables the schools in around 20-25 km radius to access education resources and other relevant material through digital connectivity for delivery and management of education. One class each in the five schools in the area are participating in this experiment to start with. MKF has organized development of OERs in Marathi for secondary classes covering relevant subjects, related activities and social work. A group of resource persons, teachers and students have put in collaborative efforts for development of these OERs which are aligned to school curriculum. One key feature of this programme has been its non-intrusive nature. Attempt has been to become a complimentary support feature to the efforts of teachers and thereby seek to transform the education in our rural schools through an internal pull. The OERs could soon be released to other interested schools. Special efforts have been made to orient teachers to new opportunities of an e-school.
    One of the next step would be to connect schools and AKRUTIs to expose children to relevant life skills through Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) at AKRUTIs.

 

As an experiment, SVERI CILLAGE is working with may be 20-30 villages around. We should now aim at scaling up of this model to include all villages in a Block. This would enable the knowledge institution to contribute to individuals/families adopting new technologies with improved education to their children (as are covered in the present programme) as well as to formulation of village development and block development plans leveraging available government schemes that are managed at decentralized governance level. There is also a question of gaining experience in implementation of this model in tribal and forest areas with different development challenges. Hopefully, Science and Technology Resource Centre (STRC) that is being set up at Gondwana University Gadchiroli could evolve into a CILLAGE to serve the area around.

 

One should expect this model of a CILLAGE consisting of a RHRDF located in a knowledge institution in the rural domain working in synergy with AKRUTI nodes and schools in the surroundings could cater to a sustainable knowledge enabled development of all villages in a block and help reduce urban rural divide leveraging the opportunities of the emerging knowledge era.

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