'Virtual campus' opened to lift education

New Delhi: Sakshat, an education portal intended to raise the standards of vocational and other education by offering the best of lectures and resource materials at the touch of a keyboard, was launched by President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday.

The portal set up by the Human Resource Development Ministry will put at students' disposal a 'virtual campus' where they can attend lectures of some of the best, interact with them and refer to world class digital materials, HRD officials say.

Thus anyone pursuing studies in paramedical, engineering, agriculture, business, commerce or other disciplines may tap into the portal to improve the level of their understanding.

They say it will also help dispense with academic limitations imposed by any substandard institutions across the country.

Speaking at the launch, Kalam hoped Sakshat would provide ''seamless flow of knowledge among our youth spread over 600,000 villages.''

He referred to changing work patterns, and saw the Internet revolution as ''a powerful tool for good educational initiatives in the rural areas.''

Among those present were HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Minister of State for HRD M A A Fatmi.

The President noted that the contribution of agriculture to India's Gross Domestic Product went down from 39 per cent in 1979 to 22 per cent in 2005, while that of manufacturing sector rose from 24 per cent to 27 per cent and the services sector from 37 per cent to 51 per cent.

The trends were reflected in work pattern, he said, adding that the workforce employed in agriculture is down from 64 per cent to 54 per cent, in manufacturing up from 15 per cent to 19 per cent and in the service sector from 20 per cent to 27 per cent.

Asserting that ''this trend has to continue,'' Kalam said manpower reduction in agriculture has to be met with increased technological input.

He said the displacement of 10 per cent workforce from agriculture sector has to be facilitated through skill enabling for undertaking value added tasks in the rural enterprises so that migration to urban area is reduced.