Lok Sabha Question No. 5069 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-04
Subject: Pandemic impact on Minority Students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Rajbahadur Singh

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5069 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.04.2022

## Pandemic impact on Minority Students

## 5069 . SHRI RAJBAHADUR SINGH:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether access to education to children belonging to minority communities  was  hampered  due  to  Covid  pandemic  and  if  so,  the remedial measures taken thereof;
- (b) the data for the number of beneficiaries in Madhya Pradesh benefitting from the educational upliftment schemes and scholarships offered by the Government;
- (c) whether  there  has  been  a  dip  in  the  number  of  minority  students  to have been enrolled in schools and colleges in 2020-21 and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the  data  for  the  literacy  and  illiteracy  percentage  of  minorities  as opposed to the non-minorities, State/year-wise since 2015; and
- (e) whether there are any schemes offered for educational particularly for upliftment of minority adults and women and if so, the details thereof including the schemes specifically initiated for Madhya Pradesh?

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

- (a) The  spread  of  COVID-19  pandemic  has  impacted  school  education across the world. Schools in States and Union Territories were closed as a precautionary measure to protect the students from Novel COVID19 (Corona) virus.  This  has  interrupted  the  learning  of  students  from pre-school  to  Grade  12.  Education  is  in  the  concurrent  list  of  the Constitution of India and majority of the schools are under the domain of the respective State  and  UT  Governments. During  pandemic,

Ministry  of  Education  had  several  consultations  with  the  States  and UTs to assess the various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With  a  view  to  addressing  the  issues  related  to  gaps  and/or  loss  of learning  among  students,  during  and  after  the  lockdown,  National Council  of  Educational  Research  &  Training  (NCERT)  has  prepared 'Alternative Academic Calendar' which is a week-wise learning plan for grades  1  to  12.  It  consists  of  interesting  activities  and  challenges related to topics/themes in the syllabus. It maps the topics/themes with the  learning  outcomes  &  facilitates  teachers/parents  to  assess  the progress  in  students'  learning  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Also  links  for  eresources have been provided for those learners who have access to the  internet.  NCERT  has  also  developed  bridge  course  modules  for out-of-school children including various activities which are helpful for bridging the  learning  gaps  and  the  States/UTs  have  also  been requested to prepare and implement School Readiness Module/Bridge Course  in  classrooms  for  initial  one  or  two  months  for  each  grade. Besides,  Ministry  of  Education  has  shared  a  comprehensive  COVID Action Plan with States/UTs and other stakeholders for mitigating the loss of learning.

A  National  Mission  on  Foundational  Literacy  and  Numeracy  called 'National  Initiative  for  Proficiency  in  Reading  with  Understanding  and Numeracy  (NIPUN  Bharat)'  has  been  launched  by  the  Ministry  of Education  on  05.07.2021  under  the  aegis  of  Samagra  Shiksha.  The National  Mission  lays  down  priorities  and  actionable  agendas  for States/UTs  to  achieve  the  goal  of  proficiency  in  foundational  literacy and numeracy for every child by grade 3. Vidya Pravesh module has been  launched  for  class  1  students.  This  is  a  play  based  3  months school preparation program for children entering in Class I.

In  addition,  a  comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  e-VIDYA  has  been initiated 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  econtent 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  PodcastShiksha Vani
- Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired, developed on Digitally Accessible Information System  (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube

SWAYAM  is  a  programme  initiated  by  Government  of  India  and designed to achieve  the  three  cardinal  principles  of  Education  Policy viz., access, equity and quality. The objective of this effort is to take the best teaching learning resources to all, including the most disadvantaged and to bridge the digital divide for students.

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. Innovation Funds under Samagra  Shiksha  have  been  used  to  set  up  mobile  school,  virtual studios,  virtual  class  rooms  in  schools,  Continuous  Learning  Plan (CLP), pre-loaded tablets etc. in various States and UTs in remote/rural areas  where  online  classes  are  difficult.  Further,  in  order  to  provide continuous professional development opportunities to the teachers at the  elementary  and  secondary  level,  Ministry  of  Education  launched the  NISHTHA  online  training  programme  using  DIKSHA  platform  in October 2020.

- (b) The  Ministry of Education  has  launched  an  Integrated  Centrally Sponsored  Scheme  for  School  Education  -  Samagra  Shiksha  with effect  from  2018-19.  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.  It  envisages  the  'school'  as  a  continuum  from  pre-school, primary,  upper  primary,  secondary  to  senior  secondary  levels  and supports  States  and  Union  Territories  in  implementation  of  the  RTE Act, 2009.

In  addition,  to  reduce  gender  gaps  at  all  levels  of  school  education, there  is  a  provision  of  Kasturba  Gandhi  Balika  Vidyalayas  (KGBVs)

under Samagra Shiksha which are residential schools from class VI to XII for girls belonging to disadvantaged groups such as SC, ST, OBC, Minority  and  Below  Poverty  Line  (BPL).  As  on  10.03.2022,  a  total  of 5,018  KGBVs are operational  with  the  enrolment  of  6,65,130  girls  of which 408 KGBVs are operational in Madhya Pradesh with enrollment of 51,593 girls.

The number of beneficiaries  in  Madhya  Pradesh  benefitting  from  the educational  upliftment  schemes  and  scholarships  since  2014-15  till 2020-21 are: 8,49,667 (Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme- 7,12,023, Post Matric Scholarship scheme -1,18,928 and Merit-cum-Means Scholarship scheme - 18,716).

- (c) As per information available on Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE+), the enrolment (in schools) of minority students for the years 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20 is tabulated below:

| Year    |   Enrolment |
|---------|-------------|
| 2017-18 |    44175641 |
| 2018-19 |    44459140 |
| 2019-20 |    47465328 |

As per All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), the enrolment of Minority Students in Higher Education is tabulated below:

| Year    |   Enrolment |
|---------|-------------|
| 2017-18 |     2645236 |
| 2018-19 |     2827104 |
| 2019-20 |     2988610 |

- (d) As  per  Census-2011,  the  State-wise  data  for  literacy  and  illiteracy  is available at: https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/Religion\_PCA.html
- (e) The Ministry  of  Education  was  implementing  a  Scheme for  Providing Education  to  Madrassas/Minorities  (SPEMM)  comprising  Scheme  for Providing Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM) and the scheme for Infrastructure  Development  of  Minority  Institutes  (IDMI).  SPEMM  has now been transferred to the Ministry of Minority Affairs w.e.f. financial year  2021-22  i.e.  from  01.04.2021.  SPEMM  was  a  voluntary  and demand  driven  scheme.  The  objective  of  SPQEM  was  to  provide

financial assistance to encourage traditional institutions like Madarsas and Maktabs to introduce modern education through subjects such as Science,  Mathematics,  Social  Studies,  Hindi  and  English  in  their curriculum  through  support  for  a  maximum  of  three  teachers  and teaching  learning  material.  The  objectives  of  the  IDMI  is  to  facilitate education  of minorities by augmenting  and  strengthening  school infrastructure in minority institutions (elementary/secondary/senior secondary schools) in order to expand facilities for formal education to children of minority communities.

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