Lok Sabha Question No. 223 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-03
Subject: e-Learning
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Devji Mansingram Patel, Sumedhanand Saraswati

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 223 TO BE ANSWERED ON 03.02.2020

## e-Learning

†223. SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL: SHRI SUMEDHANAND SARASWATI: Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state: (a) whether it has become difficult to provide access to education to all in a country like India which has a large population and higher dropout rate of children and if so, the details thereof; (b) whether the Government is considering to promote e-learning through electronic medium besides open schools and universities and correspondence courses; (c) if so, the details thereof; (d) the total expenditure incurred on e-learning during the last three years, State/ UT-wise; (e)  whether  the  Government  is  considering  to  launch  e-learning  in  all  the  universities  and schools of the country; (f) if so, the time by which e-learning method is likely to be launched in all the universities and schools of the country; and

- (g) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a)  to  (g):  The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education,  2009,  mandates  the appropriate Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighbourhood school.

In pursuance of Section 6 of the Act, the Central RTE Rules has notified the area or limits  of  neighbourhood  as  one  kilometre,  within  which  a  primary  school  and 3  kilometre within which an upper primary school, has to be established. The States have notified area or limits of their neighbourhood norms in their state RTE Rules, factoring in their State specific condition,  for  opening  of  schools.  As  reported  by  States/UTs  in  their  Annual  Work  Plan, 2018-19, 97.15% of habitations in the country are covered by primary schools and 96.49% of habitations are covered by upper primary schools. The habitations that remain uncovered are mostly small or sparsely populated in difficult areas where opening of school is not feasible for which there is a provision of giving transport and escort facility and opening of residential schools  and  hostels.  Also, 88.24%  of  habitations  have  access  to  secondary  schools  with  a distance of 5 km.

Ministry of Human Resource Development is administering a programme 'National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology' (NMEICT) to leverage the potential of ICT to make the best quality contents accessible to all learners in the country, free of cost, which, inter-alia, includes 'Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds' (SWAYAM), SWAYAM Prabha, National Digital Library of India (NDL), Spoken Tutorials, Free and Open Source Software for Education (FOSSEE), Virtual labs, eYantra and e-Shodh Sindhu.

Also, Study material developed by NCERT in the form of e-Resources (audio, video interactive  etc.)  has  been  shared  with  stake  holders  through  SWAYAM,  e-Pathshala,  web portal and mobile application National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER).

Further,  the  Digital  Infrastructure  for  Knowledge  Sharing  (DIKSHA) platform launched in 5 th September, 2017 is presently used by CBSE, NCERT and several States and UTs  to  host  e-content.  It  has  inbuilt  capability  to  leverage  machine  learning,  artificial intelligence  and  data  to  provide  needed  guidance  and  personalization  for  the  needs  of teachers and students.

The last three years Expenditure details are as under:

******

Rs. In Crore

|   Sl No. | Name of Scheme                     | 2016-2017   | 2017-18   |   2018-19 |
|----------|------------------------------------|-------------|-----------|-----------|
|        1 | SWAYAM                             | 61.00       | 63.00     |    117.27 |
|        2 | NMEICT ( including SWAYAMPrabha )  | 146.44      | 108.03    |    113.04 |
|        3 | National Digital Library (NDL)9.71 |             | 10.00     |      7    |
|        4 | e-Shodh Sindhu                     | 235.00      | 145.12    |    199.57 |
|        5 | DIKSHA                             |             |           |      2.91 |

Source PMS