Lok Sabha Question No. 192 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-19
Subject: PM e VIDYA
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Devji Mansingram Patel, Supriya Sadanand Sule, Amol Ramsing Kolhe, DNV Senthilkumar. S., Sunil Dattatray Tatkare, Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Sudhakar Tukaram Shrangre, Naranbhai Bhikhabhai Kachhadiya, Ranjeetsingh Naik Nimbalkar, Parbatbhai Savabhai Patel

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 192 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19 th  JULY, 2021 PM e VIDYA

†192. SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL:

SHRI SUDHAKAR TUKARAM SHRANGARE:

SHRI NARANBHAI KACHHADIYA:

SHRI RANJEETSINGH HINDURAO NAIK NIMBALKAR:

SHRI PARBATBHAI SAVABHAI PATEL:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has launched PM eVIDYA programme to provide for proper education during covid pandemic period and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the total budget allocated for expansion of all the resources of e-learning under this programme ike #One Nation One Digital Platform,  One  class-One  channel  campaign along with the amount of funds spent so far;
- (c)  the  details  of  the  programme  for  connecting  all  the  rural  schools  in  the  country including Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat; and
- (d) whether majority of rural population has no access to technology; and
- (e) if so, the steps taken by the Government to take education to those not having digital devices?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION

(SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar  Bharat  Abhiyaan  on  17th  May,  2020,  which  unifies  all  efforts  related  to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes:

- DIKSHA (one nation, one digital platform) is the nation's digital infrastructure for providing  quality  e-content  for  school  education  in  states/UTs  and  QR  coded Energized Textbooks for all grades are available on it.
- 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.
- (b) A  total  of  ₹14,75,74,274/-  (Fourteen  Crore  Seventy  Five  Lakh  Seventy  Four Thousand Two Hundred and Seventy Four Only) was spent during the financial year 2020-2021.
- (c) Apart  from  the  programmes  mentioned  in  part  (a)  above,  the  details  of  the programmes for connecting all the rural schools in the state of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat are mentioned below:

## Rajasthan:

For connecting all the rural schools in the state of Rajasthan the following programmes have been run by the state during the pandemic such as:

Project  SMILE  (Social  Media  Interface  for  Learning  Engagement),  e-Kaksha,  Weekly WhatsApp Based Quiz, Digital Monitoring, ShalaDarpan Student Tracking Module.

Apart from all these initiatives various steps have been taken by the Government to take education  to  those  not  having  digital  devices  such  as:  Teacher  calling  to  maintain connects with students, Work Book Distribution, Homework for students.

## Maharashtra:

For connecting all the rural schools in the state of Maharashtra online education, audio lessons through Radio, Video lessons on TV Channels, DD Sayadri etc are widely used by the students to continue learning during the pandemic period.

Apart from all this, following programmes have been run by the state during the pandemic such as:

Gali-Gali  Sim-Sim,  Tili-Mili  programme,  Broadcasting  'Dhyanganga'  Programme,  a special English programme on Doordarshan, Distribution of Textbooks for 100% students, Whatsap and other social media groups are formed from state level to district level or BRC/CRC  to school to parents/children, Community Blackboards, Loudspeaker schools, Community, Home visit by teachers etc.

## Gujarat:

Gujarat State has already connected the schools with Internet connectivity to access the learning  resources  available  on  web  under  Home  Learning  e-Learning.  Total  95% (30,573)  Government  Primary  &  Upper  Primary  Schools  with  internet  connectivity  on decentralized  approach  of  getting  internet  connection  by  schools  from  any  service provider  having  local  feasibility  to  provide  services  at  school.  Further,  around  3000 schools are connected with Optical Fibre connectivity under BharatNet project launched by Government of India.

The teachers were provided with the training to use the 'Microsoft Teams' platform for conducting virtual classes and 2 Lakh+ teachers and for 55 Lakh+ students IDs were generated for facilitating virtual classes.

Gujarat Students' Holistic Adaptive Learning App (G-Shala): Digital Learning Content is available in the form of Mobile & Web app for all the subjects of Std. 1 to 12 with Learning Management  System  (LMS)  to  make  it  accessible  for  all  students  &  teachers  with anywhere-anytime  availability.  Total  6  Lakh+  students  and  2  Lakh+  teachers  are registered in G-Shala App.

(d) and (e)

- ❖ NCERT has developed an Alternative Academic Calendar for all the stages of school education. In this calendar the themes/topics have been selected from syllabus and
- are  linked  with  the  learning  outcomes.  Guidelines  have  been  developed  for conducting interesting activities based on these learning outcomes. This can be found at following link:

https://ncert.nic.in/alternative-academic-calendar.php

- ❖ To reach out to those students which lack access to technology various innovative activities are being done on national, state or district level such as Gali-Gali SpimSim,  Tili-Mili  programme,  Motor  Eskool,  Roving  Teacher,  Project  SMILE  (Social Media  Interface  for  Learning  Engagement),  e-Kaksha,  formation  of  Whatsap  and other  social  media  groups,  Work  Book  Distribution,  Teacher  calling  to  maintain connects with students.

**********