THE AAKASH TABLET :A POST MORTEM

The Aakash tablet touted to be the cheapest tablet pc in the world was launched in October 2011 amid great fanfare as an attempt to bolster the academic experience of students in the country. It was conceived as a one stop solution to address concerns of inequity in the quality of education besides the digital divide which separated the convent bred from the government school students. 

After a series of iterations, The Aakash 2 tablet was unveiled on November 11, 2012 instantly receiving endorsement from the United Nations. Priced at Rs.1, 130, the tablet pc is expected to finally provide an affordable solution to the students of the information age.But does it really live up to its hype? Can the Aakash tablet really address the needs of the scores of students transitioning from the good old textbook to a tablet? Let’s examine….

An evaluation of the original Aakash tablet can throw some light on the outcomes we can expect from Aakash 2.Akash-I launched pompously as a low cost alternative to the now ubiquitous laptop, had a 2GB storage space, with an archaic 512 MB RAM, low battery life, low processor speed, frequent heating up and less apps.This subsidized tablet whose USP was its low price, failed to meet the fundamental requirement of the information age i.e. access to the internet. 

While  Aakash-I could be excused as a faulty start of an ambitious experiment ,The lack of will on the part of the government to really bring about sweeping changes in subsequent iterations is disappointing. It goes to show that we are content in providing an underpowered, underperforming device at a low “affordable price” although it defeats the very purpose for which the device was visualized in the first place. The problem with our government agencies is that we are focusing solely on the “cost” factor, rather than the priorities we seek to achieve!!…..i.e. in terms of quality.

The Aakash 2 is at best old wine in a new bottle. The storage is still around 2 GB, The new look has been achieved by substituting two USB ports that the first Aakash had for one mini-USB port. This means no internet dongles. That is a big drawback, considering Aakash 2 can access only Wi-Fi networks. It does support tethering capability that lets it act as a local Wi-Fi hot spot. But not being able to access cellular networks like 3G, such as in rural areas where mobile phone penetration is miles ahead of internet penetration, will place the onus on local governments to lay internet-cables, bring down broadband prices, etc. This is a huge challenge considering the state of broadband penetration in our country.

Wi-Fi hotspots are uncommon even in urban areas. They are currently restricted to a few high profile institutes of excellence. God alone knows when they would be a reality in rural areas. Lack of internet access and connectivity would ultimately militate against the very idea of knowledge through digital media. Our experience from countries such as Peru (One Laptop per Child program instituted in 2005) show how providing such devices did not actually translate into tangible results when the devices did not have internet access. However, Uruguay saw rapid transformations after it equipped every primary-school student in the country with a laptop with access to the internet.

The need of the hour today is to bring about an attitudinal shift of the governmental authorities and getting our priorities right.We need to understand why we opted for the Akash initative in the first place and work on it.We need to reassess with a renewed sense of urgency of how we choose to empower our students to be globally competant.

Our policy makers should emphasize on the requirements of a student in the information age. Any attempt to bring out a credible device capable of bridging the information divide and developing a world class human resource should have the following capabilities:

1. One which enables a student to take notes –handwriting recognition software (handwriting to text convertors).
2. Ability to record class lectures as audio files for playback later on.
3. Ability to watch videos of pre-recorded lectures.
4. Ability to access live streaming video sites for listening/Watching to online lectures.
5. Ability to view power point presentations.
6. Ability to access infotainment packages which can demystify concepts to students and make learning fun.
7. Data storage and printing options.
8. High processor speed to enable multi-tasking; longer battery life.more usb ports etc to name a few….

The Aakash tablet has the potential to bridge the digital divide and provide universal access to information to all students at all levels in the country. Content development should be outsourced to the private sector with sufficient government oversight. Development of content in vernacular languages needs to be emphasized through adequate transliteration of existing information.

It is always advantageous if the price of a device like the Aakash is low. But low price shouldn’t imply low quality. Given the goal of ultimately unifying 58.6 lakh students across 25,000 colleges and 400 universities, Aakash 2 could be revised to better leverage existing infrastructure instead of necessitating more.