Lok Sabha Question No. 29 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-19
Subject: Compromised education of millions of students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: S. Jagathrakshakan, Y. S. Avinash Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 29 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19.07.2021

## Compromised education of millions of students

## 29. SHRI S. JAGATHRAKSHAKAN

## Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  keeping  in  mind  that  a  year  into  the pandemic and the long-term impact on education is already threatening an entire generation of  our  youth  through  poor  skill  attainment  and  compromised  instruction,  and  this  shall directly impact their ability to attain proficiencies for employability?
- (b) whether  mitigating  the  severe  setback  to  education  and  rehabilitating  the  compromised education of millions of students across the country through appropriate remedies are the only ways in which damage to our student community can be minimized;
- (c) if so, the details thereof; and

## ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a)  to  (c):    It  is  a  fact  that  in  the  year  2020-21,  the  COVID-19  pandemic  has  affected  many countries and territories globally and has led to disruptions in normal life, including the closure of educational institutions. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, educational institutions have remodelled and re-imagined the teaching & learning and have introduced  suitable methods of delivering quality education. Several initiatives have been taken by Government to ensure that students don't lag behind in their studies during the pandemic.

A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes:

- Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) the nation's digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content 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  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  National  Institute  of  Open Schooling (NIOS) website/ YouTube

Various digital initiatives are being undertaken by Ministry of Education viz. Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), SWAYAM Prabha, National Digital Library (NDL), Virtual Lab, e-Yantra, Free Open-Source Software for Education (FOSSEE), etc. to  ensure  quality  education  to  the  students.    Quality  Online  courses  are  provided  through SWAYAM  which  is  an  indigenously  developed  MOOCs  (Massive  Open  Online  Course) platform.

The  Ministry  of  Education  has  also  launched  Annual  Refresher  Programme  in  Teaching (ARPIT), a major and unique initiative of online professional development for higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM.

In order to promote the online education, University Grants Commission (UGC) has notified necessary  regulation,  which  facilitates  the  Universities  to  offer  full-fledged  Online  Program. Further,  Online  courses  in  a  programme  as  per  provisions  of  UGC  SWAYAM  and  Open Distance Learning (ODL) Regulations, has been enhanced up to maximum 40 per cent from 20 per cent.

The initiatives taken by the Government for school education are available in public domain. Link of the same is https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload\_files/mhrd/files/DOSEL\_COMPILATION\_ON\_COV ID\_ACTIVITIES.pdf