Lok Sabha Question No. 2223 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-08-05
Subject: Basic Education in Rural Areas
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri K Gopinath, Shri Ajay Kumar Mandal

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2223

ANSWERED ON 5 th  AUGUST, 2024

## Basic Education in Rural Areas

## 2223. SHRI AJAY KUMAR MANDAL: SHRI K GOPINATH:

- Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the details of the schemes/projects being run to promote education in the country especially in the rural areas of Bihar including Bhagalpur; (b) the details of the action plan formulated to develop infrastructure like smart board and online education through applications for basic education in rural areas and to improve the quality of education being taught by teachers in the rural schools, Statewise; (c) the amount of budget allocated for the said purpose by the Government; (d) the steps proposed to be taken by the Government to provide online education to the students of all Government schools; (e) the details of practical difficulties faced by the Government in introducing smart classes in rural areas; and (f) whether, it is true that the technology is yet to set its footprints in many schools of interior parts of the country for students to attain digital literacy, if so the steps taken
- by the Government in this regard during the last two years and the current year?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

- (a)  to  (c):            The  Government  of  India  is  implementing  Samagra  Shiksha-an integrated Scheme for school education from 2018-19, an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education  across the country  including rural areas of Bhagalpur, Bihar. Samagra Shiksha focuses on improvement in quality of education  by  providing  support  for  different  interventions  like  in-service  training  of

teachers and school heads, conduct of achievement surveys at state and national level,  composite  school  grant  to  every  school  for  providing  a  conducive  learning environment,  grants  for  library,  sports  and  physical  activities,  support  for  ICT  and digital initiatives,  school  leadership development programme, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, etc.

The ICT and Digital Initiatives component under Samagra Shiksha has been introduced  to  transform  the  process  of  teaching  and  learning  from  the  traditional instructional teacher-centred endeavour to a learner-centred approach. The component covers classes VI to XII.

The provisions regarding the same are as under:

## A. Budgetary provisions

The  non-  recurring/recurring  grant  under  'ICT  and  Digital  Initiatives'  for  schools  is available to the States and UTs for following two options:

Option I: Under this option, schools which have not availed the ICT facility earlier can either opt for ICT or smart classrooms as per their requirement and need. In case of more than 700 enrolments, an additional ICT lab can also be considered.

Option  II:  Under  this  option,  schools  which  have  already  availed  the  ICT  facility earlier can avail smart classrooms as per the norms of the scheme.

## B. Financial provisions

ICT Lab: A non-recurring grant of up to Rs. 6.40 lakh per school and recurring grant of upto Rs. 2.40 lakh per school per annum for a period of 5 years.

Smart  Classrooms:  The  non-recurring  grant  for  Smart  Class  rooms  is  of  Rs.  2.40 lakh and the recurring grant is Rs. 0.38 lakh.

As per information received from State Govt. of Bihar, 6,406 elementary and secondary  schools  across  the  State  of  Bihar  have  been  equipped  with  ICT  Labs, including  215  schools  in  Bhagalpur  district.  Additionally,  2,710  elementary  schools have  been  covered  through  smart  classes  across  the  State,  with  96  of  those  in Bhagalpur district.

The  State/UT-wise  financial  approval  of  ICT  Labs  and  Smart  Classrooms under Samagra Shiksha are at Annexure.

(d)  to  (f):  In  order  to  provide  access  to  online  education  to  students  across  the country,  a  comprehensive  initiative  called  PM  eVIDYA  has  been  initiated  which unifies  all  efforts  related  to  digital/online/on-air  education  to  enable  multi-modal 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. QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades are available on this platform.
-  Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani.
-  Special  e-content  for  visually  and  hearing  impaired  has  been  developed  on Digitally  Accessible  Information  System  (DAISY)  and  in  sign  language  on NIOS website/ YouTube.
-  DTH TV Channels - As per the Union Budget  announcement for  Financial Year  2022-23,  the  12  DTH  Channels  have  been  expended  to  200  PM  eVIDYA DTH TV Channels to enable all States/UTs to provide supplementary education in  various Indian  languages for  classes 1-12. The  channels  have been allocated to the States/UTs and are operational

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ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) to (c) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2223 ANSWERED ON 5 th  AUGUST 2024 ASKED BY HON'BLE MP SHRI AJAY KUMAR MANDAL AND SHRI K GOPINATH REGARDING BASIC EDUCATION IN RURAL AREAS

Details of State/UT-wise financial approval for Smart Classrooms and ICT Labs under Samagra Shiksha till financial year 2024-25

| State Name                          | Financial Approval (Rs. in lakh)   | Financial Approval (Rs. in lakh)   |
|-------------------------------------|------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
|                                     | ICT Labs                           | Smart Class room*                  |
| Andaman And Nicobar Islands         | 405.3                              | 0                                  |
| Andhra Pradesh                      | 20676.1                            | 12456                              |
| Arunachal Pradesh                   | 1478.773                           | 454.8                              |
| Assam                               | 22099.2                            | 15398.4                            |
| Bihar                               | 7699.2                             | 11630.4                            |
| Chandigarh                          | 254.1                              | 352.8                              |
| Chhattisgarh                        | 8706.8                             | 24763.2                            |
| Dadra And Nagar Haveli &Daman & Diu | 355.55                             | 376.4                              |
| Delhi                               | 44.8                               | 3850.31                            |
| Dnd-Dnh                             | 219.8                              | 7655.6                             |
| Goa                                 | 40.4                               | 0                                  |
| Gujarat                             | 4940.9                             | 1096.8                             |
| Haryana                             | 6160.5                             | 16799.22                           |
| Himachal Pradesh                    | 7460.3                             | 8287.31                            |
| Jammu And Kashmir                   | 11452.42                           | 9268.8                             |
| Jharkhand                           | 25256.7                            | 4828.8                             |
| Karnataka                           | 10869.5                            | 2356.8                             |
| Kerala                              | 0                                  | 5031                               |
| Ladakh                              | 694.4                              | 1305.6                             |
| Lakshadweep                         | 182.2                              | 103.2                              |
| Madhya Pradesh                      | 11738.5                            | 18552                              |
| Maharashtra                         | 8201.8                             | 8402.4                             |
| Manipur                             | 2548.79                            | 1305.6                             |
| Meghalaya                           | 1562.5                             | 191.84                             |
| Mizoram                             | 2023.418                           | 571.2                              |
| Nagaland                            | 137.97                             | 2347.4                             |
| Odisha                              | 14828.8                            | 17606.4                            |
| Puducherry                          | 294.4                              | 348                                |
| Punjab                              | 10082.6                            | 9600                               |
| Rajasthan                           | 14943.89                           | 19746                              |
| Sikkim                              | 1033.75                            | 776.8                              |
| Tamil Nadu                          | 45706.5                            | 16905.6                            |
| Telangana                           | 4968                               | 9556.8                             |
| Tripura                             | 4844.9                             | 2126.4                             |
| Uttar Pradesh                       | 26529.21                           | 64862.4                            |
| Uttarakhand                         | 1536                               | 8912.599                           |
| West Bengal                         | 9062.4                             | 820.8                              |
| Total                               | 289040.4                           | 301094.9                           |

Source: PRABANDH *Provision for Smart Classrooms introduced in Samagra Shiksha in 2020-21.