Open Educational Resources (OER) In The Context Of Education For All (EFA)

Abstract

Education has no longer remained only the prerogative of the institutions and the state, and even knowledge has also crossed the boundaries of classroom and teachers. Thanks to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which has not only brought the revolutions in the education system but also changed the strategies for learning amongst the young masses. If we look at basic principles underlines in the EFA – Access, Equity and Quality – in the context of school education in developing and underdeveloped nations, significant steps have been taken on access to schooling across the social groups. But not much has been addressed to quality of education available in the schools at an acceptable level. The 10th edition of the EFA Global Monitoring Report released in 2012 by UNESCO reminds us in the context of quality of education that “among the world’s 650 million children of primary school age, it is time for emphasis to all not only on the 120 million who do not reach grade 4 but also on the additional 130 million who are in school but fail to learn the basic” (EFA Global Monitoring Report: Youth & Skills Putting education to work, 2012, P7). It has been appropriately observed that there has been lack of teacher support; especially placing qualified trained teachers in the schools is one of the major obstacles to achieving the goals of EFA. It estimates that 112 countries, mostly middle and lower income countries, need to expand their teaching workforce by 5.4million at primary level by 2015, and India is not exception to this. Even if they are placed in the schools, they mostly lack the necessary subject knowledge, leave alone how to teach effectively in the classrooms. In addition to this, it has been found, and more true so in Indian context, that the continuous professional development of such teachers mostly tends to stop once they are stepped into the schools.
 It is, in this context, the open educational resources (OER) could play a significant role to strengthen the education system in the developing world, and more specifically those are targeted for teachers and learners. In this paper an attempt has been made to discuss on the initiatives taken in developing Open Educational Resources (OER) for strengthening quality interventions not only in school education system, but also empowerment of teachers for providing quality education in India. The OER has become a movement worldwide for not only acquisition of knowledge in a digitized form but also has the significant characteristics to be repository of updated knowledge. No doubt this revolutionary initiative has come a long way in recent years for developing countries as blessing for increasing access to quality resource materials, which not only facilitates learning but also addresses the quality issues in school education, including open schooling, and more so linking education with livelihood. // Paper ID: 128