Lok Sabha Question No. 833 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-07
Subject: Education for Differently Abled Children
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 833 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2022

## Education for Differently Abled Children

## 833. DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has started Assisted Technology Innovation to provide socially relevant solutions to aid the learning of children who suffer from various disabilities;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether there is a need for promotion of research in assistive devices and its inclusion in curriculum;
- (d) if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the scheme is creating digital gap in the country; and
- (f) the measures taken to remove digital gap in the country particularly for rural areas?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  to  (f)  National  Education  Policy  (NEP),  2020  endorses  the  use  of  assistive  devices  and appropriate  technology-based  tools  in  school  education  for  implementing  the  equitable  and inclusive education with support of technology. Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog as part of Azadi  Ka  Amrit  Mahotsav  (AKAM),  organized  a  virtual  event  on  Assistive  Technology Innovations  showcasing  start-ups  and  their  innovations  that  enhance  or  aid  the  learning  of children with special needs (CwSN) on January 17, 2022.

This Ministry is constantly advising States/UTs through guidelines for development of econtent for producing digital resources. 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

Apart from all these, to remove digital gap in the country particularly for rural areas a comprehensive  initiative  called PM  eVIDYA has  been  initiated as  part  of  Atma  Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17 th 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.

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 shared on DIKSHA and telecast on PM eVIDYA DTH TV channels. NCERT has recorded 317 textbook chapters of different grades as audio books and uploaded on DIKSHA.

National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is imparting daily 8 hours live programmes 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.  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  which  are  available  on  NIOS  website/  YouTube.  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.