SAKSHAT project (launched on October 30, 2006) initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India, is a one stop solution to facilitate lifelong learning for students, teachers and those in employment or in pursuit of knowledge free of cost to them. The content development task for ‘SAKSHAT’ was looked after the kind approval of Content Advisory Committee (CAC) for the respective subject, which consisted of representatives from educational institutions like IGNOU, Delhi University, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan (KVS), Navodyaya Vidyalaya Sangthan (NVS), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and prominent academicians in the field.
Figure 6.1 Home page of SAKSHAT (Source: www.sakshat.ac.in)
The project 'SAKSHAT' caters to the learning needs of more than 50 crore people through a proposed scheme of 'National Mission in Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). The portal boldly seeks to address many of the shortcomings in our education system by bringing together the best experts in the country in their respective fields and best available knowledge resources on the web in public domain. It also seeks to standardize curriculum and learning materials across the country and keep them in tune with the latest trend world over so that Indian learners do not lag behind. Teacher- independent modules could work wonders in remote areas where the learner does not have access to good quality teachers or wants to study independently.
In order to bolster the knowledge resources, to obtain and maintain a competitive edge in the world, we require a system of identification and nurturing of talent and lifelong learning. The knowledge modules should be based on the personalized needs of the learner that would need to be delivered to him/her at the right time with the right content interactively to take care of the aspirations of the learners.
This mission mode project (NMEICT) seeks the effective utilization of intellectual resources, minimizing wastage of time in scouting for opportunities or desired items of knowledge appropriate to the requirement. Here, we mainly focused on SAKSHAT, which is a one-stop educational portal for pan India. There are several learning resources for the different target groups of learners.