Lok Sabha Question No. 1904 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-14
Subject: Online Classes in Rural Areas During COVID-19
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Abdul Majeed Ariff

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1904

TO BE ANSWERED ON 14 TH  MARCH, 2022

## Online Classes in Rural Areas During COVID-19

## 1904. ADV. A.M. ARIFF:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken stock of the online education facilities available to school children in the country when the schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic since March, 2020;
- (b) if so, the details of percentage of children who were not able to attend the online classes during the closure of schools since March, 2020, State-wise;
- (c)  whether  it  has  come  to  the  notice  of  the  government  that  according  to  recent reports,  only  24.2  percent  of  the  rural  children  in  the  country  were  able  to  access online education at the national level;
- (d) if so, whether the government intends to provide assistance to States to strengthen the infrastructure facilities for online classes; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

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

- (a) to (c) To facilitate the online learning by all students a comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which  unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multimode 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.

The  innovative  methods  adopted  by  the  States  and  UTs  have  been  detailed  in INDIA REPORT DIGITAL EDUCATION 2021. This report is available at https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/irde\_21.pdf

Education  is  a  concurrent  subject  in  the  constitution  and  majority  of  schools come under the purview of the state and UT governments. The State/UT wise data regarding  the  'number  of  schools  having  internet  facility  by  school  category  and management' and 'number of schools having computer available by school category and management' is available at serial No. 37 (Id 3106) and 38 (Id 3109) respectively under  the  sub-heading Infrastructure of  which  the  UDISE+  link  has  been  provided herewith:  https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/reportDashboard/sReport

- (d) & (e) The  state/UTs  governments  have  been  advised  to  act  based  on  the situation prevailing at every place to meet the demands of all students for providing them with the digital access required for learning digitally.  Depending on the states' requirement the Ministry of Education provides Rs.6.40 Lakh for setting up computer labs and Rs.2.40 Lakh for smart classroom.

The details  of  the  sanction  approved  for  ICT  and  Smart  Classrooms  for  the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 has been mentioned in the table given below:

|                  |   2020-21 (in Crores) |   2021-22 (in Crores) |
|------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
| ICT              |                 712.6 |                1003.8 |
| Smart Classrooms |                 286.2 |                 956.8 |

**********