Lok Sabha Question No. 49 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-11-29
Subject: Education Programmes
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor, Devji Mansingram Patel

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOLE DUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 49 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.11.2021

## Education Programmes

## †49. SHRI JASWANT SINGH BHABHOR:

## SHRI DEVJI M. PATEL:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the  programmes,  plans  and  projects  being  run  for  the  expansion  of  Samagra  Shiksha Abhiyan in the country including Gujarat and Rajasthan, especially in the rural and tribal areas of Gujarat;
- (b) the total budget allocated for the expansion of education infrastructure such as Smart Board, on-line  education  app  in  the  tribal  and  rural  areas  of  Gujarat  and  programmes  for  quality improvement of the teachers in rural schools in the year 2021-22; and
- (c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  develop  the  medium  of  online  education  for  the students of all Government schools?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) to (c): Samagra Shiksha, an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12, is running in the country including the rural and tribal areas in the State of Gujarat and in Rajasthan since 2018-19 . The vision of the scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for Education  and  vision  of  National  Education  Policy  2020.Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  financial assistance  is  provided  to  all  States  and  UTs  for  implementation  of  various  interventions  like opening  /  strengthening  of  schools,  provision  of  free  textbooks  and  uniforms,  setting  up  and running  of  residentialschools  and  hostels  including  Kasturba  Gandhi  Balika  Vidyalayas  and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Awasiya Vidyalaya, provisions for inclusive education of Children with  Special  Needs  (CWSN),  transport  &  escort  facility,  in-service  training  of  teachers,  ICT, vocational education and other activities.

In Gujarat, 4372 schools were approved for the year 2021-22 with an outlay Rs. 109.59 crore under virtual / smart classroom, out of which Rs 14.29 crore is  for 548 schools in tribal areas  and Rs  13.54  crore for 522 schools  in  rural  areas.  An  outlay  of Rs.  36.74  crore was approved  for  the  Teacher  Education  component  which  includes  support  for  Teacher  Educators salary, DIKSHA,  Programmes & Activities and Capacity Building (SCERT&  DIETs), Technology Support to Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) and Annual Grant to TEIs for meeting day-to-day expenses, hiring of resource persons/experts for teacher training, purchase of library books, stationary, periodicals, office and library equipment and office expenses etc.

The  Department  of  School  Education  and  Literacy  has  launched  an  initiative  to  improve learning  outcomes  at  the  Elementary  level  through  an  Integrated  Teacher  Training  Programme called  NISHTHA  -  National  Initiative  for  School  Heads'  and  Teachers'  Holistic  Advancement under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in August 2019. The aim of this training is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students, handle diverse situations and act as first level counsellors.

Due  to  the  ongoing  COVID  pandemic  and  in  order  to  provide  continuous  learning opportunities  to  the  teachers  at  the  elementary  level,  this  Department  has  launched  NISHTHA online using DIKSHA platform in October 2020 to reach out to elementary teachers and its further extension to all as well. NISHTHA online on DIKSHA platform covers 18 courses in 11 languages. Teachers  are  oriented  on  various  aspects  related  to  Learning  Outcomes,  Competency  Based Learning  and  Testing,  Learner-centered  Pedagogy,  School  Safety  and  Security,  Personal-social qualities, Inclusive Education, ICT in teaching-learning including Artificial Intelligence, Health and well-being including yoga, new Initiatives in School Education including library, eco club, youth club, kitchen garden, School Leadership qualities, Environmental Concerns, Pre-school, Prevocational Education and School Based Assessment in a joyful learning manner.

In the State of Gujarat under Samagra Shiksha in 2021-22, an amount of Rs.1164.25 lakh was  approved  for  capacity  building  of  116425  Teachers  of  Grades  I  to  V,  to  be  covered  under NISHTHA 3.0 for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy. Further, an amount of Rs.487.90 lakh was approved for 48790 teachers of all the Government and  Government-Aided schools at Secondary and  Senior  Secondary  level  under  NISHTHA  2.0  for  Training  of    in-service  Teachers  and  Head Teachers.

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) -  the nation's digital infrastructure for providing quality  e-content  for  school  education  in  States/UTs.  QR  coded  Energized  Textbooks  for  all gradesare available on it.
- One earmarked Swayam Prabha TV channel per class for classes 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.

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