Lok Sabha Question No. 1309 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-25
Subject: Providing Digital Facilities to Students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Prataprao Govindrao  Patil Chikhalikar, Ajay Nishad

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1309

ANSWERED ON 25.07.2022

## Providing Digital Facilities to Students

## †1309. SHRI PRATAPRAO PATIL CHIKHLIKAR: SHRI AJAY NISHAD:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the poor children and youth in rural areas are facing difficulties in online studies due to non-availability of smart phones and network and if so, the steps taken by the Government to provide more accessible and affordable online education to students of deprived and rural areas;
- (b) whether the Government has formulated any schemes for providing low cost devices like smartphones, tablet, laptop etc. and internet facility to meet the need of online education to students of deprived and rural areas; and
- (c) if so, the time by when the above facilities are likely to be provided and if not, the reasons therefor ?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) to (c): Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under  domain  of  respective  State  and  UT  Government.  However,  in  order  to  ensure  that  every student including those residing in rural and educationally backward districts of the country, gets continuous access to education, a multi-pronged approach has been adopted by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.

A comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  e-Vidya  has  been  started  as  part  of  Atma  Nirbhar Bharat  Abhiyan  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 the  following components:

-  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

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 21 st Century Skills and community/ mohalla classes are organized.

Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  has  launched  the  Samagra  Shiksha  -  an Integrated Scheme for School Education from 2018-19. It envisages the 'school' as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to Senior Secondary levels. It is an overarching programme  for  the  school  education  sector  extending  from  pre-school  to  class  XII  and  aims  to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education. Samagra Shiksha is implemented in partnership with all the States and UTs and financial assistance is provided to all States  and  UTs  for  various  components  including  strengthening  of  ICT  infrastructure  in  schools. Under Samagra Shiksha,  ICT  component  envisages  covering  all  Government  and  Aided  schools from  classes  VI  to  XII  and  Teacher  Education  Institutions  (TEIs),  subject  to  the  availability  of budgetary provision.

ICT component covers Government and Aided Schools having classes from VI to XII which will enable use of ICT resources from younger grades. ICT Labs are approved in 120614 schools and Smart classrooms are approved in 82120 schools. Total 1482565 TABs have been sanctioned to the teachers dealing primary classes.

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,  pre-loaded  tablets  in  various  states  and  UTs  are  effectively  used  in  remote  rural areas where online classes are difficult.

PRAGYATA  guidelines  were  issued  to  the  States/UTs  to  facilitate  continued  education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia include situation where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less bandwidth, resources are shared through various platforms like television,  radio  etc.  that  do  not  depend  on  internet.    Similarly,  Students  Learning  Enhancement Guidelines were released in 2020 to support learning of children during COVID-19. Guidelines for development of e-content for children with special needs have been released. Guidelines for parent participation in Home- based learning during school closure and beyond have also been released in 2021.

Besides,  the  Ministry  has  undertaken  a  proactive  initiative,  named,  'MANODARPAN' covering  a  wide  range  of  activities  to  provide  psychosocial  support  to  students,  teachers  and families for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing during the COVID outbreak and beyond. The Central Government is constantly advising States/UTs through guidelines and meetings with respect to interventions for reducing impact of pandemic on education. Some of the guidelines issued so far are given below:

|   S.No. | Intervention                                  | Links of Guideline                                                                       |
|---------|-----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education      | https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/ pragyata-guidelines_0.pdf    |
|       2 | Guidelines for developing E- content for CWSN | https://dsel.education.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021- 06/CWSN_E-Content_guidelines.pdf |

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