Lok Sabha Question No. 998 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-29
Subject: E-education
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Smt. Delkar Kalaben Mohanbhai

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †998 ANSWERED ON 29.07.2024

## E-education

†998.  SMT. DELKAR KALABEN MOHANBHAI: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the details of the funds spent on various programmes and schemes to provide e-education in different parts of the country during the last three years till date, State-wise including Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu; (b) the number of beneficiaries to whom e-education training has been imparted under various programmes and schemes, State and District-wise particularly  in  the  Dadra  and  Nagar  Haveli and Daman and Diu; (c)  whether  the  Government  provides  employment to the  beneficiaries completing  e-education training; and (d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR)

(a) to (d) The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP- 2020) envisions a transformative approach to  digital  education,  aiming  to  leverage  technology  to  provide  high-quality,  accessible,  and equitable education for all. The policy mandates the integration of digital tools, resources, and platforms  into  the  education  system.  NEP  2020  also  seeks  to  bridge  the  digital  divide  and prepare learners for the challenges and opportunities of the future. To  achieve  NEP  2020  aims  and  objective,  several  initiatives  have  been  taken  to  improve education  access  and  ensure  affordability.  Ministry  of  Education  implements  an  umbrella scheme  'National  Mission  on  Education  through  Information  and  Communication  Technology

(NMEICT)'. It aims to promote digital education through several inventions including:

- SWAYAM -The  objective  is  to  ensure  access  to  the  best  teaching  learning  content  in Massive  Open  Online  Courses  (MOOC).  SWAYAM  has  offered  more  than  3500  unique courses with over 4.4 crore enrolments in the last seven years.
- SWAYAM  Prabha:  This  has  been  conceived  as  the  project  for  telecasting  high  quality educational  programs  through  DTH  channels  as  well  as  web  portal.  As  of  now,  there  are more than 143,000 unique videos, accumulating a total watch time exceeding 86,000 hours.
- SATHEE:  The  platform provides equal access to quality education for competitive examination such as JEE, NEET, SSC etc. to all students/ learners across the country. The platform provides around 2000 video lectures, 80,000+ problems, mock tests, an AI chatbot, and provide mentorship to the aspirants of JEE, NEET, SSC etc. So far, more than 4 lac students/ learners from across the country have registered on portal.
- SWAYAM Plus:  Ministry has launched an online platform featuring high-quality courses for credit  recognition  in  collaboration  with  academia  and  Industry  leaders  like  L&T,  Microsoft, Bajaj  Finserv  etc.  It  aims  to  boost  employability  among  college  students  and  lifelong learners,  especially  in  Tier  2  and  Tier  3  cities.  To  ensure  maximum  participation  of Industries, 37 MoUs have been signed with the eminent Industry. There are 187 Courses from various sectors mainly Information Technology & Services, Banking, Finance Services & Insurance is available on platform.

The funds (in Cr.) spent over the last 3 years for the NMEICT components are:

|   S. No. | Scheme                                                                                |   2021-22 (in Cr.) |   2022-23 (in Cr.) |   2023-24 (in Cr.) |
|----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|        1 | National Mission on Education through Information & Communication Technology (NMEICT) |             351.84 |             395.02 |             395.82 |

Further,  Ministry  implements  PM  e-VIDYA to  unify  all the  efforts  related to  digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education.

Also, the Ministry of Education implements the flagship scheme, Samagra Shiksha, a centrally sponsored scheme aligned with the NEP 2020 recommendations. This scheme aims to provide inclusive, equitable, quality, and holistic school education to the children. The one of the major interventions  under  the  scheme  is  to  provide  financial  aid  to  States/  UTs  for  establishing  ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in school. Details of fund release for last 3 years for ICT labs and Smart  Classrooms  attached  at  Annexure  I  and  Annexure  II  respectively,  may  be  seen  at https://www.education.gov.in/parl\_ques.

To enhance youth employability, Ministry of Education implements National Apprenticeship and Training Scheme (NATS).  The primary objective of the scheme is to provide high quality on-jobtraining to youth, enhance the employability, and bridge the skill gap. Government has released Rs. 1298.80 Cr. as a stipend to provide on-job-training to more than 8.50 lakh apprentices in last 5 years.

*****