Television in Education

Abstract

The seven Millennium Development Goals set out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration will be more achievable with an educated and aware population. Welfare economists like Amartya Sen have underlined the responsibility of states to provide universal access to education at various forums. India is struggling to provide universal access to education and educational broadcasting is increasingly seen as a powerful component in this. There is growing recognition that educational broadcasting can, under ideal conditions, cover dispersed geographical areas and vast populations, and take excellence in teaching to the deprived areas. The key, however, is to recognise what the ideal conditions are and to put them in place. Over the last 50 years, enough experience has been logged in this area all over the world to point towards best practices. This paper attempts to examine the Indian experience in educational broadcasting. The paper begins by giving an overview of the initiatives so far and the issues that require attention for greater success in deploying educational broadcasting projects.