Lok Sabha Question No. 2230 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-02
Subject: Education for Diffeently abled Children
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Gaurav Gogoi, Geetha Viswanath Vanga, Srinivas Kesineni, Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy, Kotha Prabhakar  Reddy

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2230 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2021

## Education for Diffeently abled Children

## 2230.   SHRI GAURAV GOGOI:

SHRIMATI VANGA GEETHA VISWANATH:

SHRI MANNE SRINIVAS REDDY:

SHRI KOMATI REDDY VENKAT REDDY:

SHRI KOTHA PRABHAKAR REDDY:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that according to UNESCO, a significant population of disabled children reside in the rural areas of India and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  issued  any  guidelines  for  education  of  Children  with Disabilities and for others also during the pandemic and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether it is true that the inability to switch to digital media is likely to lead to increased drop out of Children with Disabilities, and
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  taken  any  steps  to  stop  such  drop-  out  or  to  increase enrolment post pandemic and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the Government has laid down new guidelines for producing digital education resources for differently abled children after a year of online education has highlighted the lacunae in such resources and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) to (e):  Education being in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. The Central Government is constantly advising States/UTs through guidelines and meeting with respect to interventions for reducing impact of pandemic on education. The guidelines issued so far are as follows:

(i) PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education:

https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/pragyata-guidelines\_0.pdf

(ii) Guidelines for the development of e-content for Children with Special Needs (CWSN).

https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/CWSN\_E-Content\_guidelines.pdf

(iii). Apart from all these, a comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part  of  Atma  Nirbhar  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  Central  Board  of  Secondary  Education (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.

(iv). National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has signed MoU with Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center (ISLRTC) for development of Sign language videos. Till 25 February, 2021 about 300 videos have been recorded on NCERT curriculum from classes  1  to  5.  These  are  being  shared  on  DIKSHA  and  telecast  on  PM  eVIDYA  DTH  TV channels. NCERT has recorded 317 textbook chapters of different grades as audio books and have uploaded on DIKSHA

(v). National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has also started imparting daily 8 hours live programme of 4 hours each on PMeVidya channels, for classes 10 and 12 for providing continued learning  support  for  learners  at  Secondary  and  Senior  Secondary  level  including  Vocational Courses and Indian Sign Language-based content w.e.f. 01.09.2020. Till now, more than 370 live sessions  are  already  broadcast  for  learners  still  now,  more  than  1064  live  sessions  are  already broadcast for learners of NIOS. NIOS is using One DTH channel specifically for hearing impaired students  in  sign  language.  For  visually  and  hearing-impaired  students,  study  material  has  been developed in Digitally  Accessible  Information  System (DAISY) and in sign language; both are available  on  NIOS  website/  YouTube.  82  sign  language  videos  for  CWSN  are  uploaded  on DIKSHA  portal  by  NIOS.  One  hour  programme  in  sign  language  for  secondary  and  senior secondary level content of NIOS are being broadcast on PM eVidya channel 10 from September 1, 2020.  Course material in 20 subjects at secondary level and 5 subjects at senior secondary level are  already  uploaded  on  DIKSHA  Portal  by  NIOS.141  sign  language  videos  for  CWSN  are uploaded on DIKSHA portal by NIOS.

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