IGNOU goes to Africa

On May 16, 2008, the MoU signed between IGNOU and TCIL for the pan-African

e-network had the vision of setting up a e-network connecting Indian

institutions with fifty-three countries of Africa for providing tele-education

and telemedicine services via optic fiber links and satellite. The network worth

Rs 5429 mn was inaugurated by the Government of India on February 26, 2009. It

has 169 VSAT terminals, with three VSAT terminals in each country to provide

tele-education, telemedicine and a special connectivity of a satellite hub earth

station in Senegal with the heads of state. Ministry of External Affairs,

Government of India, has identified the crme Indian universities namely IIT

Kanpur, Madras University, Delhi University, BITS Pilani, IISc Bangalore, Amity

University along with IGNOU playing a pivotal role of delivering tele-education

courses from the campus. The memorandum for the African countries, namely

Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Liberia, Malawi, Seychelles,

Nigeria, Botswana and Zambia, has already been processed. The telemedicine

program provisions healthcare services to the African countries.

Project Ethiopia



In order to measure the success of such an ICT initiative, Project Ethiopia

was started as a precursor to provide tele-education services from IGNOU at New

Delhi and telemedicine services from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad. Project Ethiopia,

which commenced with an induction program through the teleconferencing mode, is

currently imparting MBA course from IGNOU to forty students of Addis Ababa

University and Haramaya University through tele-education. In addition, the

medical specialists of CARE hospital, Hyderabad are providing online medical

consultation to Black Lion Hospital of Addis Ababa and the Nekempte Hospital in

Ethiopia. The telemedicine initiative is being perceived as a turnkey solution

for providing sustainable e-healthcare services to the pan-African countries so

that they would be able to manage these services on their own after five years.

Tele-education and IGNOU



It would not be wrong to state that IGNOU with its state-of-the-art

infrastructure in distance education has been aptly recognized as the nodal

agency for handling the academics, logistics and operational aspects of the

e-network project. The African countries have been clustered based on their

similar education requirements for structured, flexible and functional secondary

education that is both academic and vocational. The target is to cater to the

multitude of civilians who have dropped out of school, failed to attain the

minimum requirements or desire to improve themselves now that they are

self-employed or under-employed using the distance learning approach, says Dr

Silima Nanda, director, international division, IGNOU.

The admission and registration processes are quite simple. One can apply

online by submitting the necessary credentials. The confirmation of admission is

made available on the pan-African e-network portal and IGNOUs website. Most

interestingly, the course content is available both online and offline. An

effective knowledge management system stores the entire course material so that

the students who have missed out the online lectures can avail them at their own

convenience.

Technology Platform



The tele-education system aims to create virtual remote classrooms with

seamless two-way interaction between the teachers and students through

collaborative tools with the help of an integrated delivery system software.

This system provides one-to-many and vis-a-vis connectivity through a

heterogeneous network platform in an IP based multicasting mode of delivery. The

system architecture runs on the widely accepted network protocols for the

interconnectivity and client-server model. The system comprises server side

applications, multimedia delivery, request handling services, and client side

applications for remote end learning with real-time interaction. The IT

infrastructure consists of a multiple servers system with one application

server, one database server, one control server, and one agent server. These

servers run on Windows and Linux operating system. The application server,

database server and workstation for live streaming purpose are connected to the

storage area network (SAN).

The education content is accessed by the students at the university center in

Addis Ababa and Haramaya learning centers in Ethiopia. Professors from IGNOU

deliver lectures on MBA course from the studio of tele-education setup in IGNOU,

New Delhi.

Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL) had been appointed by the

Government of India as the implementing agency to set up the network and

maintain it for a period of five years after commissioning. TCIL employees have

also been deputed in the African countries to provide technical support. In

Senegal, there are five people; and around two people in the other countries.

TCIL has been responsible for developing the education infrastructure in

Senegal, right from contruction of a proper building to establishing the VSat

hub. IGNOU and CARE Hospital are connected to VSNL facilities in New Delhi

through 2Mbps leased lines. The interactive educational and medical content from

these two sites are transmitted to Ethiopia through submarine cables based on a

2Mbps international private leased circuit (ILPC) between India and Ethiopia.

The local connectivity between the IPLC and end terminals in Ethiopia is

provided by the Ethiopian authorities through a heterogeneous network of MPLS

and wireless, says Vimal Wakhlu, director, technical, TCIL.

Atreyee Datta



atreyeed@cybermedia.co.in