After nearly four years since the launch of the India-Bhutan e-Library portal, it was formally handed over by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, India (C-DAC) to the Ministry of Education today.
The India-Bhutan e-Library Project is designed to make educational content accessible for students across the country in a reliable way with the implementation of modern IT Technologies.
With over 3000 digital content, the e-Library Portal will provide a framework for students, teachers, scholars, and others to access online and offline e-content in the form of e-books, audio, video, and images.
The Officiating Secretary of MoE, Karma Tshering said that this was a milestone in the Indo-Bhutan relationship.“E-Learning project started in 2016 has been completed successfully. And this is happening because of the tremendous effort put in C-DAC and the partner, RGOB, in particular, the Ministry of Education.”
Officials involved in the project said the project was due to be formally handed over last year. However, the Ministry of Education wasn’t confident enough to take over the project and had requested the Indian government to postpone the handing-taking dates.
They also shared, due to the lack of local content and awareness about the portal, the website did not gain much popularity amongst the students and teachers across the country. However, the officials added, that the portal received better responses from parents and students after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Bhutanese counterparts assured to focus on content development for the sustainability of the project. The ministry also plans to further enhance its HR capacity as well.
Since the launch in 2016, the e-Library portal has been established in 49 central schools and 12 colleges in the country. The Government of India supported the project with a total fund of Nu 148 M.
The handing taking over ceremony was attended by officials from the Indian Embassy and education ministry.
Passang Dorji
