Lok Sabha Question No. 1620 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-10
Subject: Promotion of Digital Literacy under PM eVidya Scheme
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Nilesh Dnyandev Lanke, Shri Mohite Patil Dhairyasheel Rajsinh, Dr. Amol Ramsing Kolhe, Smt. Supriya Sule, Shri Sanjay Dina Patil, Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad, Shri Amar Sharadrao Kale, Shri Bhaskar Murlidhar Bhagare

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1620 ANSWERED ON 10/03/2025

## Promotion of Digital Literacy under PM eVidya Scheme

1620.   Dr. Amol Ramsing Kolhe:

Shri Mohite Patil Dhairyasheel Rajsinh:

Shri Amar Sharadrao Kale:

Shri Nilesh Dnyandev Lanke:

Shri Bhaskar Murlidhar Bhagare:

Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad:

Shri Sanjay Dina Patil:

Smt. Supriya Sule:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of initiatives undertaken by the Government to promote digital literacy among students under PM eVidya scheme;
- (b) the number of students from the State of Maharashtra benefitted from the Government's digital  education  initiatives  and  the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  expand  these benefits in remote areas;
- (c) the budget allocated by the Government for digital infrastructure development in schools for the current fiscal year;
- (d) whether the Government has taken any steps to provide digital devices to students from economically weaker sections to ensure equitable access to PM eVidya resources, if so, the details thereof;
- (e) the details of number of schools that have been provided internet connectivity and other digital resources under PM eVidya Scheme;
- (f) the details of the Government's plan to connect remaining schools with the scheme; and
- (g)  the  mechanisms  put  in  place  to  evaluate  the  impact  of  PM  eVidya  Scheme  on  student learning outcomes, particularly in digital literacy ?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (Shri Jayant Chaudhary)

(a) to  (b) National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  (para  4.23)  mentions  that  certain  subjects, skills, and capacities should be learned by all students including digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking which are promoted through various digital initiatives.

A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was 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 PM eVidya initiative is supported through budget allocated under Samagra Shiksha scheme and implemented with the support of NCERT. The components of these initiatives are available to all the students across all the States/UTs free of cost. Since education in in the concurrent list, States/UTs collaborate with NCERT  to  utilize,  monitor  and  evaluate  the  effectiveness  of  these  initiatives  as  per  their requirements. NCERT provides regular feedback on quality of these initiatives.

The key components of PM eVidya are also aligned towards enhancing digital literacy and includes:

-  DTH  TV  Channels:  These  channels  were  launched  on  9th  March  2024  by  Hon'ble Education Minister. As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, the  12  DTH  Channels  have  been  expanded  to  200  PM  eVidya  DTH  TV  Channels  to enable  all  States/UTs  to  provide  supplementary  education  in  various  Indian  languages including  for  classes  1-12.  The  channels  have  been  allocated  to  the  States/UTs  and Autonomous Bodies under an MoU with NCERT and are operational.

Also  On  6th  December  2024,  in  consonance  with  the  NEP  2020  recommendation  for promotion of Indian Sign Language and to ensure extensive reach of the teaching learning material in ISL to a wider audience, Hon'ble Minister of Education launched   a dedicated initiative  promoting  inclusive  education  through  accessible  learning  resources  for  the hearing-impaired community through a dedicated PM eVidya DTH Channel (Channel no. 31). Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NCERT/NIOS website and YouTube channels.

One  hour  of  content  on  Digital  Literacy  is  broadcasted  by  NCERT  daily  on  DTH Channels and YouTube to enhance the digital literacy of students and teachers in  rural areas.

-  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). Overall 560.09 crore learning sessions have been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. Further, the courses on Computer Sciences on DIKSHA platform for Class XIth and Class XIIth include Digital Literacy components.

NCERT  has  been  offering  NISHTHA  (National  Initiative  for  School  Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement) courses through the DIKSHA platform with one of the objectives  to  empower  the  teachers  and  school  heads  with  the  digital  skills  that  can  be further used to enhance digital literacy of students. NISHTHA (Elementary, Secondary, FLN and ECCE) covers various courses in Indian languages. Under this, ICT in teachinglearning  including  Artificial  Intelligence  is  one  of  the  courses  covered.  It  is  to  be mentioned that all the NISHTHA integrated Teacher Training Programmes have dedicated course  modules  on  use  and  integration  of  technology  in  school  education  -  teaching learning  and  assessment.  More  than  63  Lakh  teachers  have  completed  NISHTHA Trainings.

To promote crucial  critical  thinking  skill  and  to  give  space  for  creativity,  a  vertical  on Virtual  Labs has been created on DIKSHA platform. Training on Virtual labs has been conducted  through  PM  eVidya  DTH  TV  channels  for  teachers  and  teacher  educators across the country.

Under PM eVidya, Five DTH channels have been assigned to Maharashtra State that are successfully  running  content  in  Marathi  language.  Also,  20  Master  Trainers  from Maharashtra were trained through various orientation programmes organised in phases for PM eVidya 200 DTH channels. About 1,08,995 registered users (students) are consuming the  content  and  22,641  resources  are  uploaded  on  DIKSHA  by  Govt.  of  Maharashtra. 4,53,220  Teachers  of  Maharashtra  are  trained  on  various  ICT  components  including  econtent development under DIKSHA.

c) Under Samagra Shiksha, for the financial year 2024-25, Rs.62,581.60 lakh under ICT Labs and Rs.60,385.2 Lakh under Smart Classrooms have been allocated to States/UTs. Rs. 33,760 lakh has been allocated to NCERT by MoE under Digital Education component.

d) The  Government  does  not  provide  digital  devices  to  students  under  Samagra  Shiksha. However, the Government provides digital devices to teachers based on  proposal  from the States/UTs. As on date, digital device as teaching resource package has been given to 15.72 lakh teachers.

e) As per UDISE+ 2023-24 data, out of 65,064 Government and local body schools 35,349 schools have internet facility  available.  Out  of  1,08,195  schools,  ICT  Labs  are  available  in 10,463 Schools, Smartclasses are available in 3,292 Schools and 18,436 Schools have DTH connectivity.

f) The  Union  Budget  2025  includes  a  provision  under  the  Bharatnet  project  to  extend Broadband connectivity to Government secondary schools and primary health centres in rural areas in a phased manner.

g) As such, no study has been conducted to evaluate the impact of PM eVidya Scheme on student  learning  outcomes  including  digital  literacy  as  PM  eVidya  is  a  supplementary mechanism to School teaching. However, evaluation of students learning outcome is being done on a periodic basis. The recent survey was done on 4th December 2024 by the National Assessment Centre, PARAKH  (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge  for  Holistic  Development).  The  survey  is  a  baseline  study  to  understand  the achievement  of  the  stage  specific  competencies  at  the  end  of  foundation,  preparatory  and middle stages as per NEP 2020. It covers the entire spectrum of schools across the country.

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