Lok Sabha Question No. 3776 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-24
Subject: Quality of Education for Everyone and Everywhere
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Smt. Sanjna Jatav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

## DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO:- 3776

ANSWERED ON-24/03/2025

## Quality of Education for Everyone and Everywhere

†3776. SMT. SANJNA JATAV:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  has  noticed  that  there  is  a  need  of  around  45  million  teachers  to provide quality education to everyone and everywhere; and

(b)  if  so,  the  details  of  the  initiatives  proposed  by  the  Government  keeping  in  view  that  quality education is important to break the vicious circle of poverty and make life better of children along with their family?

## ANSWER

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

(a): Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, an overwhelming majority of the schools in the country comes under the administrative control of States/UTs. Therefore, the recruitment, service conditions and rational deployment of teachers come under the purview of the respective State governments/UT administrations. Further, recruitment is a continuous process and vacancies  arise  due  to  a  number  of  factors  like  retirement,  resignation,  increased  requirement  of teachers because of the enhanced students' strength, etc. The pupil teacher ratio of the country has improved from 27:1 as per the UDISE+ 2022-23 report to 25:1 as per the UDISE+ 2023-24 report.

(b):  Education  being  a  subject  in  the  Concurrent  List  of  the  Constitution,  the  responsibility  to provide quality education vests with both the Central government and the States/UTs. The Central Government provides support to all States/UTs for providing quality education in the country in alignment  with  NEP  2020  through  its  autonomous/Statutory  bodies,  i.e.  NCERT,  CBSE,  KVS, JNV,  NIOS  and  NCTE  and  its  centrally  sponsored  schemes  of  Samagra  Shiksha,  PM  Poshan, ULLAS,  STARS  and  PM  SHRI  and  central  sector  scheme  of  National  Means  cum  Merit Scholarships.  Some of the other major steps taken in this regard are:

- In pursuance of the recommendations of the National Education Policy, 2020, the National Council  for  Teacher  Education  (NCTE)  has  notified  four  (04)  year  Integrated  Teacher Education Program  (ITEP)  on 26 October 2021, as a 4 Year dual-major holistic undergraduate degree.
- The Government has released a Guiding Document on the National Professional Standards for  Teachers  (NPST).  NPST  defines  competencies  of  teachers  at  different  stages/levels.

Braille  and  audio  versions  of  the  Guiding  Document  have  been  launched  as  a  part  of inclusive education efforts of the Department.

- The Government has launched bluebook on the National Mission for Mentoring (NMM). The Bluebook on NMM contains the various modalities for mentoring of schoolteachers for enhancing  their  capacity  building.  Braille  and  audio  versions  of  the  Bluebook  have  been launched as a part of inclusive education efforts of the Department.
- The Department has aimed to upgrade all 613 functional DIETs of the country into Centers of  Excellence  in  a  phased  manner.  For  the  purpose,  125  DIETs  have  been  approved  for upgradation with a budget of Rs. 92,320.18 Lakhs for the FY 2023-24 under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha.
- NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement) - an integrated teacher training programme designed by the NCERT for training of teachers has been launched. NISHTHA has been further extended to NISHTHA 2.0, ECCE and FLN.
- Under Skill  Education  component  of  'Samagra  Shiksha',  NSQF  aligned  skill  courses  are offered to the students from class 9th to 12th in the schools covered under the scheme. So far, 138 Job Roles have been approved for introduction as Skill subjects to school students for Class IX to XII.
- Employability  Skill  modules  including  Communication  Skills,  Self-Management  Skills, Information  and  Communication  Technology  Skills,  Entrepreneurship  Skills,  and  Green Skills have been made a mandatory part of skill subject.
- ₹81.90 Cr has been allocated to States/UTs for skill exposure in Classes 6 to 8 for FY 202425. Hub and Spoke Model has been introduced.
- Guidelines for 10 Bag less Days for students have been issued.
- National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat) has been launched for ensuring Fundamental Literacy and Numeracy.
- National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (NCF FS) has been launched.   Learning  Teaching  Material  (Jadui  Pitara)  along  with  its  digital  version  and Textbooks for classes I and II developed.
- National  Curriculum  Framework  for  School  Education  (NCF-SE) released  on  23 rd August 2023.
- PARAKH  (Performance  Assessment,  Review,  and  Analysis  of  Knowledge  for  Holistic Development) to fulfil the objectives of setting norms, standards, guidelines and implement activities related to student assessment has been set up.
- PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan to evaluate children's progress and learning competencies held on 04 th December, 2024.
- The Competency Based Assessment for Holistic Development, the Holistic Progress Card for the Preparatory, Foundational, Middle and Secondary stage have been prepared.
- A 73 indicator-based matrix Performance Grading Index (PGI) has been developed to grade the States/UTs. District level Performance Grading Indices (PGI) have been prepared and a Web application for compilation of PGI-District has been developed.
- VIDYA PRAVESH-Guidelines for Three-month Play-based School Preparation Module for Grade-I Children have been released.
- To enhance the monitoring of educational activities and outcomes, a central AI-driven big data analytics platform, Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK), launched on 06.09.2020.
- Under PM e-VIDYA, DIKSHA is the one nation, one digital education infrastructure. All states/UTs have been onboarded in DIKSHA.
- 12 DTH Channels of SWAYAM PRABHA for School Education are meant to support and reach those who do not have access to the internet have been extended to 200 channels.
- National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling  (NIOS)  has  introduced  Indian  Sign  Language  as  a subject at secondary level.
- Under Samagra Shiksha approaches such as remedial teaching and bridge courses have been used  at  the  elementary  level  and  more  progressive  approaches  such  as  the  Learning Enhancement Programme are implemented by identifying the learning gaps and equipping students with the core learning pre-requisites for the particular grade.
- Implementation of a scheme 'New India Literacy Programme or ULLAS' targeting all nonliterates aged 15 years and above.
- Vidyanjali, school volunteer management program, initiated to strengthen Government and Government aided schools  through  community  and  private  sector  involvement  across  the country.
- The Union Cabinet has approved a Centrally Sponsored Scheme Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising  India  (PM  SHRI)  on  7 th September,  2022.  These  schools  are  to  highlight  all  the initiatives of National Education Policy 2020 and emerge as exemplar schools over a period, and offer leadership to other schools in the neighborhood.

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