Lok Sabha Question No. 60 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-04
Subject: Proposal to Provide Free of Cost Digital Tools to Marginalised Communities
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Nayab Singh, Sanjay Bhatia

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 60

## ANSWERED ON 04/12/2023

## Proposal to Provide Free of Cost Digital Tools to Marginalised Communities

†60. SHRI NAYAB SINGH:

SHRI SANJAY BHATIA:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether the Government proposes to provide free of cost digital tools to the marginalised communities for online education in the country;

- (b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the efforts being made to address the issues like-limited digital literacy of the students and their limited access to digital tools; and

(d) whether the Government proposes to set up the coaching institutes on the lines of schools?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SMT ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) to (c)   The National Education Policy 2020 calls for investment in digital infrastructure, online  teaching  platforms  and  tools,  virtual  labs,  digital  repositories,  online  assessments, technology and pedagogy for online teaching-learning etc., with the promotion of multilingualism and the power of language in teaching and learning through innovative and experiential  methods.  NEP  (para  4.23)  further  mentions  that  certain  subjects,  skills,  and capacities should be learned by all students. These skills also include digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking which are promoted through various digital initiative.

A comprehensive initiative called PM e-VIDYA 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 are available to all the students across all the states free of cost.

The key components of PM eVidya includes:

- 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).
- As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, the 12 DTH Channels have  been  expanded  to  200  PM  e-VIDYA  DTH  TV  Channels  to  enable  all  States  to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1-12.
- 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.
- To  promote  crucial  critical  thinking  skill  and  to  give  space  for  creativity,  it  has  been proposed to establish 750 virtual labs and 75 Skilling e-labs by 2023. The Virtual Labs are proposed for Science and Mathematics subjects for Classes 6th - 12th, and Skilling e-labs would provide  for  simulated  learning  environment.  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.

Further,  ICT  and  Digital  initiatives  component  of  centrally  sponsored  scheme  of Samagra Shiksha covers Government and Aided schools having classes VI to XII. Under this component financial assistance is provided for establishing ICT Lab and Smart Classrooms in schools.

(d)      To  assist  students  preparing  for  competitive  exams  across  the  country,  a  SATHEE portal has been developed in collaboration with IIT Kanpur. Feedback on the beta version of the platform is currently being collected from students from all over the country.

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