Lok Sabha Question No. 193 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-14
Subject: Online  Classes
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Aparajita Sarangi, DNV Senthilkumar. S., Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, K. Subbarayan, Pradyut Bordoloi, Bharti Pravin Pawar, Diya Kumari, Jagdambika Pal, Manickam Tagore B, Jayant Sinha, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Amol Ramsing Kolhe, Supriya Sadanand Sule, Uttam Kumar Nalamada Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 193 TO BE ANSWERED ON 14 th  September, 2020

## ONLINE CLASSES

193 :

SHRIMATI APARAJITA SARANGI:

DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR S.:

DR. SUBHASH RAMRAO BHAMRE:

SHRI PRADYUT BORDOLOI:

SHRI SUBBARAYAN K.:

MS. DIYA KUMARI:

SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

SHRI MANICKAM TAGORE B.:

SHRI JAYANT SINHA:

SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA:

DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE:

SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:

SHRI UTTAM KUMAR REDDY NALAMADA:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

- a) whether  due  to  Covid-19  pandemic  online  classes  are  being  conducted  for  students  by schools;
- b) if  so,  whether  many  of  the  students  are  deprived  of  education  due  to  lack  of  access  to device or the internet facility in the country, particularly in Tamil Nadu;
- c) the measures, if any taken to ensure access to online learning and teaching methods and resources to students with no access to smartphones, features phones, during the pandemic;
- d) whether the Government has asked States to map all such students to ensure that learning assistance can be made available to them amid the pandemic and if so, the response of the States in this regard especially Tamil Nadu; and
- e) whether the Government has taken steps to solve education problem of Children of migrant workers and if so, the details thereof;
- f) the  details  of  steps  taken  by  the  government  to  prepare  teachers  for  new  modalities  of online teaching;
- g) whether there has been a surge in the school drop out rates due to COVID 19 and if so, provide data along with the reasons for the drop out at both primary and secondary level, Statewise; and
- h) the Standard Operating Procedure of re-opening of schools post the COVID- 19 pandemic?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a)to(c) : Online  classes  are  being  conducted  at  the  schools  by  employing  various  digital tools.  Various efforts have been made for the creation of digital infrastructure which would not only be helpful in the current circumstances but would also be valuable asset for online learning in future in the form of DIKSHA portal (https://diksha.gov.in/), SWAYAM Portal (swayam.gov.in), SWAYAM  Prabha,  DD  Channel,  e-Pathshala  (https://epathshala.nic.in/),  NROER  (National Repository of Open Educational Resources) portal (https://nroer.gov.in/welcome), radio, community radio and CBSE podcasts etc. The medium of TV, radio has been used for the students who do not have digital means.

Tamil Nadu has repositioned Kalvi TV, a TV channel exclusively for the learning needs of school children during this pandemic. The TV programmes have been widely publicized. New content has been created by SCERT for all classes and subjects and is being telecast around the clock every day.

The steps taken by all the states are shown in this report -  India Report Digital Education June 2020

https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/India\_Report\_Digital\_Education\_0.pdf

(d)  In  order  to  enable  online  education  benefit  to  the  children  of  every  category  and  teachers, Learning Enhancement Guidelines have been issued.

https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload\_filehs/mhrd/files/Learning\_Enhancement\_0.pdf

The Learning Enhancement Guidelines has been released on 19 August 2020 during the challenging  times  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  These  have  been  prepared  on  the  basis  of  the recommendations and reports of States/UTs which are as following:

- Learning enhancement during COVID-19 for students without digital devices.
- Learning  enhancement  during  COVID-19  for  students  with  limited  access  to  digital devices.
- Learning enhancement during COVID-19 for students with digital devices.

(e) Tamil  Nadu  has  prepared  a  detailed  data  collection  form  to  assess  the  access  to  digital devices, communication and technology modes and internet facility of students and their families.

A letter was issued from Ministry on 13 th July 2020, which has guidelines on how to deal with children of migrant labour. In order to ensure that there is no loss of learning or academic year for all such children, steps have been advised to the States and UTs.

(f) The Learning Enhancement Guidelines has been released on 19 August 2020 during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- (g) The during COVID-19 is a matter of States and they have been made aware of this.

(h) The  process  of  opening  of  the  school  after  COVID-19  will  be  done  according  to  the instructions from Home Ministry.

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