With more than one billion heads moving on this land, about 45% of which are illiterate and more than 40% of which are children and young people; to build the nation, in every sphere viz. social, cultural, political, economic and intellectual / academic, they are to be molded, shaped and prepared for the future in time. And education with well defined goals provides key for this. In this age of satellites and signals, when conventional class room teaching is fortified with distance education tools, the role of electronic media as one of the cost-effective channels of distance education is indispensable for a vast and diverse, yet a developing country like India.

The application of modern day Audio-Visual Technology, for making the rays of knowledge reach the remote corners of the country, got its momentum during the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), started in 1975. The need to constitute the ET movement was felt and it was to the realisation of the National Planners to carry it forward in six states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujrat, Maharastra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh besides having a centre at New Delhi.The centers in these states are called State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET) whereas the center at New Delhi is called Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET). The Govt. of India, to enable the children in the country to benefit from ET and Educational Radio Programmes not only established these institutions for T.V. and Radio programmes production but also monitored the programme's transmission through Doordarshan and All India Radio and their utilisation in the field.

The  SIET, Orissa was set up in 1986 at Bhubaneswar. The institute attained autonomous status from 1st January 1990. The entire activity of the institute is primarily devoted to the production of Educational and Enrichment Video and Audio programmes, their Telecast and Broadcast and also to designing programmes to aid teachers training and provide support to the educational movement in the state in the form of Audio, video and  print packages. The institute with cooperation from Doordarshan, All India Radio, TE & SCERT, SRC, OPERA and other pioneers in the educational movement is marching ahead on the path of fulfilling the needs of education sector in the state.

SIET, Orissa is mandated to pursue the following goals:

Production of Educational / Enrichment programmes for Telecast / Broadcast through TV / Radio and communication through Audio / Video cassette player

Designing and production of teaching Aids

To administer the Educational Technology programmes and assignment of work to agencies in both Govt. and Non-Govt. sector

Imparting training to production personnel and teachers
Communication research and evaluation

Providing TV sets and radio-cum-cassette players to schools and monitoring their utilisation activities

Dissemination of TV / Radio (Audio Visual) programmers through available commercial channels

Patronizing production of TV and Audio educational materials by outsiders and stringers

SIET now produces / prepares Educational TV and Educational Radio programmes for primary school children of standard I to V   i.e. between the age group of 5 to 11 years as well as for teachers. It has also, under advice from CIET recently started producing programmes for Higher/ Upper primary and secondary level students from class VI to class X and teachers. These programmes are telecast on National channel of Doordarshan, 5 days a week (Monday to Friday) from 10.30 A.M. to 11.00 A.M. All the Doordarshan centres of the state whose transmission covers nearly 86% of state's population and 705 of state's area, relay the E.T.V. programmes.

All India Radio, Cuttack broadcasts SIET's Educational Radio programmes from 1435 hrs. to 1450 hrs. two days a week (Monday and Wednesday), which is relayed by A.I.R. Sambalpur and A.I.R. Jeypore thus covering, almost, the whole of Orissa

MANAGEMENT

SIET is an Autonomous society under Registration of Societies Act, 1860 with Registrar of Societies, Orissa. The affairs of the Institute is carried under the guidance of its Governing Body and directions of the Executive Committee.

The day to day affairs are managed by the administrative, technical and academic personnel, under the direction and supervision of the Director of the Institute.