Lok Sabha Question No. 665 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-06
Subject: AI in Education Sector
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Aparajita Sarangi

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 665 ANSWERED ON 06/02/2023

## AI in Education Sector

## 665. SHRIMATI APARAJITA SARANGI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  any  comprehensive  policy  for  integrating  AI  in  the  education sector and if so, the details thereof;

(b)  whether  the  Government  plans  to  collaborate  with  private  sector  players  to  increase  the adoption of AI in primary and secondary school education across schools especially in Odisha; and

(c) the details of funds allocated towards promotion of AI in education sector in Odisha?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUBHAS  SARKAR)

(a) to (c): The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has recommended introducing contemporary  subjects  like  Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  in  curriculum,  at  relevant  stages.  The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has introduced Artificial Intelligence as a subject in  class  IX  from  session  2019-2020  and  in  Class-XI  from  session  2020-2021  in  their  affiliated schools.

NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture) is a key enabler of NEP 2020 and act as a super connector to cross leverage ecosystem capabilities and catalyse innovation in education. NDEAR Ecosystem Policy and Open Standards & Specifications were released on 11th Nov 2022 and the same may be accessed at https://www.ndear.gov.in/

To facilitate  online  education,  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 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.

7

As part of ICT and Digital Initiatives component of Samagra Shiksha, ICT Labs and Smart Class rooms are sanctioned in the Government Schools having classes VI to XII. For setting up ICT Lab ,  non-recurring grant of up to Rs. 6.40 lakh per school and recurring grant of upto Rs. 2.40 lakh per school per annum for a period of 5 years is sanctioned. For setting up Smart Class rooms,  non-recurring  grant  of  Rs.  2.40  lakh  per  school  and  recurring  grant  of  Rs.  0.38  lakh  is sanctioned.

As on date 1,20,614 ICT Labs and 82,894 Smart Class rooms have been sanctioned in all the  States  and  UTs.  In  the  State  of  Odisha  8,317  ICT  Labs  and  6,974  Smart  Class  rooms  have been sanctioned.

.*************