In a bid to promote affordable education, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said the government aims to offer about 2,000 online courses within one year through ‘Swayam’—an indigenously developed platform. The announcement regarding this was made today by Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar. The announcement was made when Javadekar was speaking at the inauguration of a week-long Teachers Workshop at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi. Javadekar said that currently the Swayam platform offers 380 courses, which will be expanded to 2,000 courses in one year’s time. It may be recalled that the Swayam platform was launched last year.About 60,000 students have already completed their courses through this affordable platform launched last year. It makes knowledge available anytime anywhere like ATM offers cash, the Minister said.
Javadekar compared the Swayam platform to an ATM machine, saying that just like cash could be withdrawn anytime from an ATM machine, the Swayam platform provides the facility of ATL, meaning Anytime Learning. The Swayam platform is quite comprehensive, as it offers a wide variety of courses, right from school level (classes 9 to 12) to under graduate and post graduate courses. Swayam has proved to be a boon for students who may not have the financial resources to enroll for a regular course in a school or college level.