Lok Sabha Question No. 3587 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-11
Subject: Digital Education Initiative aligned with NEP 2020
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Smt. Supriya Sule, Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3587 ANSWERED ON 11/08/2025

## Digital Education Initiative aligned with NEP 2020

3587. Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad: Smt. Supriya Sule:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has launched any specific digital education initiatives in alignment with NEP 2020 particularly in rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra, if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  the  total  number  of  benefitted  schools  and  students  under  the  schemes  in  Maharashtra, district-wise;
- (c) whether  Teacher  Training  and  Digital  Pedagogy  Orientation  has  been  conducted  in Maharashtra under the scheme, if so, the details thereof:
- (d) whether any collaboration with EdTech Companies, NGOs has been explored for enhancing digital education infrastructure under NEP 2020 in Maharashtra, if so, the details thereof along with names of partners and nature of collaboration; and
- (e)  whether  the  Government  has  any  future  plans  for  expanding  or  upgrading  the  digital education infrastructure in Maharashtra under NEP 2020, if so, the details thereof?

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

(a) to (e): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the administration of the respective State Governments.

There are several comprehensive digital education initiatives undertaken for all students across  India  including  rural  and  tribal  students  by  this  Ministry.  The  Ministry  of  Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes  including  hardware,  software,  tablets, laptops, and  training resources, supporting digital boards, virtual classrooms, and DTH channels. Under the scheme, funds are provided  for  setting  up  ICT  Labs  and  Smart  Classrooms  according  to  the  requirement  of  the State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B).

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  across  the  country  including  those  in  the  rural  and tribal districts of Maharashtra. States/Union Territories (UTs) collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. PM eVidya includes  200  DTH  TV  Channels  allotted  to  States/UTs/Autonomous  Bodies  (ABs)/Other Ministries  in  Government  of  India  and  400  Radio  channels  to  enable  them  to  provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. The  State  of  Maharashtra  has  been  allotted  five  channels  (MH  PM  eVIDYA  113  to  MH  PM eVIDYA 117) under the 'PM eVidya' initiative of the Ministry of Education.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation's One Nation, One Digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs along with QR  coded  Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades.  As a participant  in  DIKSHA, States/UTs/ABs  have  generated  and  contributed  over  3.69  lakh  content  in  local/regional languages.  Overall,  564.05  crore  learning  sessions  have  been  completed  on  DIKSHA  by students, teachers and other stakeholders. The stakeholders have access to more than 300 Virtual Labs on DIKSHA.

Maharashtra is one of the participants on DIKSHA and has 10.15 lakh registered users with Learning sessions of 30.84 cr+ and 332.07 cr+ Learning minutes. The State has uploaded 687 Digital Textbooks and has 22,662 e-content on DIKSHA that can be accessed by all students in the country including those in rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra.

The  Ministry  of  Education  (MoE)  is  implementing  a  National  mission  to  improve learning  outcomes  at  the  School  Education  level  through  an  integrated  teacher  training programme called 'National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement' (NISHTHA). NISHTHA courses  have  been  designed  and  are  run  for  Elementary,  Secondary, FLN, ECCE and Educational Technology and  are offered  online  by  NCERT  on  the  DIKSHA platform  using  high-quality  professionally  made  e-content. As  per  NEP  2020  mandate,  every teacher has to undergo a minimum of 50 hours of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) per  year,  focused  on  pedagogy,  digital  literacy  and  subject-specific  expertise.  22.73  lakh beneficiaries from Maharashtra got certified by taking courses on NISHTHA through DIKSHA platform.

Under  National  Mission  in  Education  through  ICT  (NMEICT)  Scheme,  Ministry  of Education  in  collaboration  with  IIT  Madras  has  launched  Study  Webs  of Active-Learning  for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) portal to make available high-quality content to learners free of cost with the approach of 'Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning'. SWAYAM portal provides high-quality  educational  content  across  various  domains,  curated  by  premier  Institutions  for  a well-rounded learning experience. The platform has hosted over 16,530 courses, including 4,100 unique courses till date. The cumulative enrolments have crossed 5 crore mark, with more than 1.62 crore unique learners.

The  Union  Budget  2025  includes  a  provision  under  the  BharatNet  project  to  extend broadband  connectivity  to  government  secondary  schools  in  rural  areas  in  a  phased  manner, through BSNL.

To  saturate  all  secondary  and  higher  secondary  schools  with  ICT  Labs  and  Smart Classrooms,  a  Supplementary  Project Approval  Board  (PAB)  meeting  was  held  on  28 th May 2025.  A  total  of  20,456  ICT  Labs  and  29,896  Smart  Classrooms  have  been  approved,  with financial approval of Rs. 911.13 crore for ICT Labs and Rs. 630.38 crore for Smart Classrooms under Samagra Shiksha, in addition to earlier approval of 1,56,213 ICT Labs and 1,46,040 Smart Classrooms.  The  State  of  Maharashtra  has  been  approved  for  839  ICT  Labs  and  851  Smart Classrooms for secondary and senior secondary schools.

The  State  of  Maharashtra  has  informed  that  they  are  collaborating  with  EdTech Companies and NGOs like Pi Jam Foundation (for the School Quality Assessment and Assurance Framework  (SQAAF) through  an  online  self-assessment),  UNICEF  -  UniLearn  Platform  (for blended-mode  Early  Childhood  Education  Certificate),  Khan Academy  (to  implement  the  Dr. Jayant Narlikar Maths and Science Learning Enhancement Programme for Classes 1 to 10)  and Vowels  of  the  People  Association  -VOPA  (as  part  of  the  NIPUN  Maharashtra  initiative)  for enhancing digital education infrastructure under NEP 2020.

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