Lok Sabha Question No. 2093 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-02
Subject: Digital education during CORONA
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Jagdambika Pal

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2093

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 02 ND  AUGUST, 2021

## Digital education during CORONA

## 2093. SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  it  is  true  that  children  from  economically  weaker  backgrauds  have  fallen behind as classes shifted to digital mode and if so, the details thereof; (b) the steps taken by the Government to help children and students from socially and economically  weaker  backgrounds  to  access  digital  and  online  mode  of  classes  and study material; (c)  whether  the  Government  has  launched  any  platfrorm  to  provide  free  access  to digital/online classes and study material, details thereof including number of users and number of classes taken and study material accessed; (d) the steps taken by the Government to support State Government to tackle the issue of digital exlusion of students and children from education; and (e) whether the Government has allocated funds for improvement of digital education in
- the Budget 2021-22 and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) to (c) 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 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.

All  these  schemes/programmes  are  free  of  cost  and  available  to  all  the  students across the nation.

Also,  to  reach  out  to  those  students  who  lack  access  to  technology  various innovative activities are being done  at national, state or district level such as  GaliGali  Sim-Sim,  Tili-Mili  programme,  Motor  Eskool,  Roving  Teacher,  Project  SMILE (Social Media Interface for Learning Engagement), e-Kaksha, formation of Whatsap and other social media groups, Work Book Distribution at home, Teacher calling to maintain connects with students.

(d) and (e) School Education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and the state  governments  have  been  directed  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. Also, the approval in 2021-22 for ICT, DIKSHA and Smart classrooms are given below:

- An amount of Rs. 68685.2 Lakh is approved under Non- recurring head for ICT lab in 10727 schools.
- An  amount  Rs.  94633.20  Lakh  is  approved  for  smart  classrooms  in  42204 schools under the Non- Recurring head.
- An  amount  of  Rs.1098.01  Lakh  is  also  recommended  under  DIKSHA  for development of digital contents.

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