Portal To Help Bridge Gap Of Education Facilities

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today launched an education Portal, Sakshat, hoped to provide ''seamless flow of knowledge among our youth spread over six hundred thousand villages.'' Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kalam referred to changing work patterns, and saw the internet revolution as ''a powerful tool for good educational initiatives in the rural areas.'' The Portal put together by the Human Resource Development Ministry is intended to overcome ''vast disparity'' of educational facilities available in various regions across India.

HRD officials say the Portal will help ''in bridging the gap'' by providing quality educational resources and teachers 24x7 ''to learners irrespective of their social, economic and educational status.'' They say Sakshat is aimed at nurturing talent and offering a one stop solution for academic and vocational education needs for all levels and all fields of study.

Among those present were HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Minister of State for HRD M A A Fatmi.

Dr Kalam noted that the contribution of agriculture to India's Gross Domestic Product went down from 39 per cent in 1979 to 22 per cent in 2005, while that of manufacturing sector rose from 24 per cent to 27 per cent and the services sector from 37 per cent to 51 per cent.

The trends were reflected in work pattern, he said, adding that the workforce employed in agriculture is down from 64 per cent to 54 per cent, in manufacturing up from 15 per cent to 19 per cent and in the service sector from 20 per cent to 27 per cent.

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