Lok Sabha Question No. 2036 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-14
Subject: Increase in Out of School Children
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Nusrat Jahan Ruhi

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2036 TO BE ANSWERED ON 14.03.2022

## Increase in Out of School Children

## 2036. SHRIMATI NUSRAT JAHAN RUHI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)    whether the Government has taken cognizance of the recent increase in out of school children to 5.5 percent as per the Annual status of Education  report;
- (b)    if so, the details thereof and if not, reasons therefor;
- (c)     whether the Government has assessed the gap between the demand and availability of adequate digital infrastructure for students in rural areas and from economically weaker sections and if so, the details thereof;
- (d)    if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (e)    the number of schools in rural areas that have been equipped with digital infrastructure from march 2020 to November, 2021?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) & (b): The Government of India has held the National Achievement Survey for classes 3, 5, 8, and 10 on 12.11.2021 covering (a) Government Schools (Central Government and State Government); (b) Government Aided Schools; and (c) Private Unaided Schools.

The objective of NAS  2021  is to evaluate children's progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the health of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels.

(c) & (d): Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. However, in order to ensure that  every  student  of  the  country  gets  continued  access  to  education,  a  multi-pronged approach has been adopted. Regarding school education, to facilitate the online learning by all  students  a  comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  eVIDYA  has  been  initiated  as  part  of AtmaNirbhar  Bharat  Abhiyaan  on  17 th May,  2020,  which  unifies  all  efforts  related  to digital/online/on-air  education  to  enable  multi-mode  access  to  education.  The  initiative includes:

- 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 Swayam Prabha 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

Further,  an  Alternate  Academic  Calendar  has  been  prepared  for  providing  learning solutions  for  grade  1  to  12  and  'Students'  Learning  Enhancement  Guidelines'  prepared  by NCERT suggest models for the following three types of scenarios to ensure that no child is deprived of reach of education:

- a) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students without digital devices;
- b) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with limited accessibility to digital devices &
- c) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with digital devices.

Also, PRAGYATA guidelines issued to States/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia includes situations where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less bandwidth where resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio etc that do not depend on internet.

Where the digital facility (mobile device/ DTH television) is not available, Ministry of Education has taken many initiatives  like  Community  Radio  Stations  and  a  podcast  called Shiksha Vani of CBSE, Textbooks, worksheet supplied to residence of learners, Handbook on 21st Century Skills and community/mohalla classes are organized. Innovation Funds of the Department are used to set up mobile school, virtual studios, virtual class rooms in schools, Continuous  Learning  Plan  (CLP)  for  States/UTs  has  been  initiated  in  all  States/UTs,  preloaded  tablets  in  various  states  and  UTs  are  effectively  used  in  remote/rural  areas  where online classes are difficult.

Under the BharatNet programme, the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd (CSC-SPV) of MeitY has been assigned the task of providing Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connectivity to the Government Institutions, including schools.

(e): As per UDISE 2020-21, the details of government schools in rural areas having digital infrastructure is as follow:-

| Digital Infrastructure                        |   No. of Schools |
|-----------------------------------------------|------------------|
| ICT Lab                                       |            55885 |
| PCs with Integrated Teaching Learning Devices |            53894 |
| Digital Board                                 |            22224 |

Further, under ICT component of the scheme of Samagra Shiksha, the following interventions have been approved in the schools during 2020-21 & 2021-22:

| Year    |   ICT Labs |   Smart Classrooms |
|---------|------------|--------------------|
| 2020-21 |       4090 |              16223 |
| 2021-22 |      10778 |              42276 |

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