Bhopal: Parents of college going children have now started preferring e-content, uploaded on the department's website or from some open source. Parents say that books have become too expensive and their paying capacity has gone down due to the corona pandemic.
“I am thankful to the department of higher education that has started uploading course books in e-form on the website. I have downloaded them for my daughter who has been promoted to BA second year,” said Avnish Shrivastava, working in a private company.
Similar views were aired by Jaideep Arya who said that during the corona pandemic he bought a desktop for his son. The school going daughter also uses it. Now when the colleges have been opened the computer at home is being used to download e-content from various sources, said Arya.
“Children have now adapted well to online mode of learning. Thanks to the pandemic. Both of my children have discovered a lot of open sources of learning. This has helped them in self-studying as well,” said Arya. Moreover, books cost a lot and prices of books have gone up after the pandemic and paying capacity has gone down, he added.
UGC (University Grants Commission) has uploaded more than 50,000 UG and PG books on its e-pathshala portal. The Department of higher education (DHE) has also uploaded e-books on its portal. Bhoj University has also uploaded e-content related to most of the subjects on its website.
Moreover, the department of higher education has recently formed a committee to design and make e-content for most of the subjects and topics.
“Higher Education Department will create e-content to an extent that a student sitting in a remote village can access it and survive even without buying a single book,” said Mohan Yadav, minister of higher education.
In the coming days, students will have complete course content on the department's website. Later, we will add lectures of more experts on difficult topics and subjects so that students will have the option of different experts on the same topics, added Yadav.
