Lok Sabha Question No. 1757 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-21
Subject: Platform for Online Classes
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Gautam Gambhir

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1757

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 21.09.2020

## PLATFORM FOR ONLINE CLASSES

## 1757.  SHRI GAUTAM GAMBHIR:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS ANDINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY  be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government proposes to develop a platform  for  conducting  online  classes  for  school students  of  various  education  boards  in  the  country; and (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATES FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a)  and    (b): I. A comprehensive initiative called PM  eVIDYA has been initiated by Ministry of Education  which  unifies  all  efforts  related  to  digital/online/on-air  education  to  enable  multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes, where work is in progress:

- DIKSHA the nation's digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in  states/UTs:    and  QR  coded  Energized  Textbooks  for  all  grades  (one  nation,  one  digital platform)
- One earmarked TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)
- Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani
- Special  e-content  for  visually  and  hearing  impaired  developed  on  Digitally  Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube

Initiatives like DIKSHA, Swayam Prabha, Swayam MOOCs, ePathshala, NIOS content of Ministry of Education are being used extensively by students.

II.    PRAGYATA  Guidelines  on  Digital  Education: Keeping  in  view  the  availability  of  digital infrastructure,  guideline  briefs  on  various  modes  of  digital  education  including  online  mode  that depends more on availability of internet, partially online mode that utilizes the blended approach of digital technology and other offline activities, partial and offline mode that utilizes television and radio as a major medium of instruction of education. The guidelines can be accessed at: https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/pragyata-guidelines\_0.pdf

III. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is implementing a project Project 'Online Labs (OLabs) for school experiments". The Olabs project is the online web based portal where Laboratory experiments are accessible by the students and teachers across India. Online Labs (Olabs) is available for public access at www.olabs.edu.in.  The features Olabs are as under:

- The  experiments  can  be  accessed  anytime  and  anywhere,
- There  are  173  total  experiments  available  in  the  portal with  interactive  simulators  and videos  (i.e Physics -54; chemistry -46; Biology -36; Maths -25; English -12).
- The Content aligned to NCERT/CBSE and State Board Syllabus from  Class  9  to  Class  12.
- The  OLabs  contents  are  available  in  four  languages  (i.e.  English,  Hindi,  Marathi  and Malyalam).
- There is a support system and has been operational to address issues/queries of Olabs users, using e-mail, phone and queries on portal.

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