Lok Sabha Question No. 2341 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-13
Subject: Education for Poor
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Dharmendra Kumar Kashyap, Rahul Ramesh Shewale, Pritam Gopinath Munde, Girish Bhalchandra Bapat

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2341 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2021

## Education for poor

2341.  SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU: SHRI DHARMENDRA KASHYAP: SHRI RAHUL RAMESH SHEWALE: DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE: SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the weaker sections of the society are the most deprived section of the society with extremely low levels of education attainment;
- (b) if so, the facts in this regard and the response of the Government thereon;
- (c) the details of measures taken by the Government under the provisions of the Right to Free and  Compulsory  Education  Act,  2009  to  ensure  equal  access  to  education  even  when  done remotely, regardless of the financial status of children's family,?
- (d) the details of the initiatives taken by the Government for upliftment of the weaker sections of the society along with the success achieved in this regard during the last three years;
- (e) whether the Government is taking any special measures to prevent the exclusion of SC/ST and other vulnerable groups from remote learning/online classes and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f)  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  give  equal  opportunities  to  all  the  sections  of  the society?

## A N S W E R MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a),  (b)  &  (d):  The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory  Education  (RTE)  Act,  2009, mandates the appropriate Government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighbourhood school. Education is a subject in the concurrent  list  of  the  Constitution  and  majority  of  the  schools  are  under  the  control  of  the respective State Governments. Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education is implementing Samagra Shiksha to support States and UTs in implementation of the  RTE  Act,  2009. Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education is one of the major  objectives  of  Samagra  Shiksha.  The  Gross  Enrolment  Ratio  (GER)  shows  equitable participation  of  children  belonging  to  Scheduled  Caste  (SC)  and  Scheduled  Tribe  (ST)  in education, which is as under:

(Source :- UDISE+ 2019-2020)

| GER           |   All Children |   SC Children |   ST Children |
|---------------|----------------|---------------|---------------|
| Primary       |         102.74 |        113.11 |        107.11 |
| Upper Primary |          89.67 |         97.07 |         93.48 |
| Secondary     |          77.9  |         83.02 |         76.72 |

Samagra Shiksha attempts to reach  out  to  girls,  and  children  belonging  to  SC,  ST, Minority    communities,  etc.    SC,  ST  and  minority  Special  Focus  Districts  (SFDs)  have  been identified on the basis of adverse performance on various indicators of enrolment, retention, and gender parity, as well as concentration of SC, ST and minority communities. To ensure equitable education to the most deprived sections of the society, Samagra Shiksha has various provisions like  free  textbooks,  uniform,  Kasturba  Gandhi  Balika  Vidyalayas  for  girls,  Netaji  Subhas Chandra  Bose  Awasiya  Vidyalayas/Hostels  for  areas  which  are  sparsely  populated  with  low density of population (mostly tribal areas). These efforts have resulted in increase in transition rate of SC and ST students across all levels of education. The details for last three years are as under:

| Transition Rate               | SC      | SC      | SC      | ST      | ST      | ST      |
|-------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|---------|
| (Source :- UDISE)             | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
| Primary to Upper Primary      | 88.56   | 88.54   | 90.64   | 91.64   | 90.77   | 92.38   |
| Elementary to Secondary       | 86.40   | 87.08   | 88.92   | 85.89   | 87.52   | 87.49   |
| Secondary to Higher Secondary | 62.99   | 64.61   | 68.11   | 61.74   | 62.80   | 62.78   |

(c), (e) & (f): A comprehensive initiative called PMeVidya has been started which aims to unify all  efforts  related  to  digital/online/on-air  education  to  enable  multi-mode  access  to  education. The initiative  includes  all  forms  of  digital  modes  to  provide  wide  access  -  DIKSHA  (online), SWAYAM  (online),  SWAYAM  PRABHA  (TV),  other  TV  Channels  including  use  of Doordarshan and AIR Networks. Further, PRAGYATA guidelines were issued to States/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia include situations where  internet  connectivity  is  not  available  or  available  with  very  less  bandwidth,  these resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio etc that do not depend on internet. An Alternate Academic Calendar has been prepared for learning solutions for grade 1 to 12 for both  children with and without device. Besides these,  community radio, worksheets & textbooks supplied to residence of learners, home visits by teachers, community classes, toll free numbers,  SMS  based  requests  for  audio  content,  localised  radio  content  for  edutainment  etc. have been used. The steps taken by all the states and UTs are shown in the India Report Digital Education, June 2020, which is available at the following link: https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/India\_Report\_Digital\_Education\_0.pdf