Lok Sabha Question No. 3620 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-11
Subject: Learning Loss and Digital Divide in Government Schools
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri K Sudhakaran

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 3620

## ANSWERED ON - 11/08/2025

## Learning Loss and Digital Divide in Government Schools

## 3620. Shri K Sudhakaran:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has conducted any national or State-wise assessment of learning loss among students, particularly in Government schools since the COVID-19 pandemic;
- (b) the data on dropout rates and academic backlogs caused due to prolonged school closures, especially in rural and underprivileged regions;
- (c) whether the Government has allocated funds or designed specific interventions to address the digital divide and its impact on academic recovery in Classes I to X; and
- (d) the steps being taken to ensure equitable access to remedial education and psychological support for students impacted during the pandemic?

## ANSWER

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

(a) : The  Government  of  India,  undertakes  large-scale  assessments  to  measure  learning outcomes in schools across the country from time to time. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 was conducted after schools reopened post-COVID to evaluate learning levels of students across Classes III, V , VIII and X, in Language, Mathematics, Environmental Studies (EVS), Science, Social Science and Modern Indian Language (MIL). NAS 2021 covered over 34 lakh students from 1.18 lakh schools, including Govt. schools, from across 720 districts in India, and served as a key diagnostic tool to identify changes in learning outcomes vis-à-vis previous rounds of NAS. National, State and District level reports from NAS 2021 are available at https://parakh.ncert.gov.in/nas-dashboard .

More  recently,  PARAKH  Rashtriya  Sarvekshan  2024  was  conducted  by  the  National Assessment Centre, PARAKH, NCERT under the aegis of the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education to understand the baseline performance under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in development of competencies among students at the end of the Foundational, Preparatory and Middle Stages (Grades 3, 6 and 9 respectively) of schooling.

Nationwide over 21.15 lakh students and 2.70 lakh teachers and school leaders from more than 74,000  schools,  including  Govt.  schools,  in  781  districts  participated  in  the  assessment. National, State and District level reports for PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 are available at https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en, a dedicated dashboard designed to disseminate the findings of the assessment.

(b): The Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Education has developed the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) system to record data on indicators of school education provided by all the States and Union Territories. Due to migration of children between regions, dropout rates, defined as the proportion of pupil from a cohort enrolled at a given level in a given school year who are no longer enrolled at any grade in the following school year, is captured in UDISE+ at the National rather than regional level. As per UDISE+, dropout rates at the All-India level for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 is as given below:

| 2022-23                      | 2022-23                         | 2022-23                    | 2023-2024                       | 2023-2024                       | 2023-2024                     |
|------------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Primary (Class 1 to Class 5) | Upper Primary (Class 6-Class 8) | Secondary (Class Class 10) | 9- Primary (Class 1 to Class 5) | Upper Primary (Class 6-Class 8) | Secondary (Class 9- Class 10) |
| 7.8                          | 8.1                             | 16.4                       | 1.9                             | 5.2                             | 14.1                          |

Also, based on the recommendations of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), w.e.f 2022-23 UDISE+ has been revitalized, to capture individual student wise data and created student's registry. There has been a complete change in the manner of collection of data from 2022-23 onwards from gross enrolment data to individual student data. It makes comparison of data from previous years statistically different/inchoate.

(c) & (d): Education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution with majority of schools falling under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. The Central Government assists States and UTs through Centrally Sponsored Scheme such as Samagra Shiksha, wherein financial assistance is provided with a focus on delivering quality education through different interventions which inter-alia include remedial teaching for academically weaker students, inservice  training  of  teachers  and  school  heads,  composite  school  grant  to  every  school  for providing a conducive learning environment, grants for library, sports and physical activities, support for Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, ICT and digital initiatives, conduct of achievement surveys at State and National level, School Leadership Development programme etc.

Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  financial  assistance  is  provided  to  States/UTs  for  setting  up  of Information and Communication  Technology (ICT) Labs and Smart Classrooms in Government and Government  Aided Schools having classes VI to XII. The nonrecurring/recurring grant under 'ICT and Digital Initiatives' is approved to States and UTs as per the proposals submitted by them to the Project Appraisal Board (PAB) subject to norms and guidelines of the Scheme. As per PRABANDH Portal, as on 31.05.2025, 1,76,669 ICT Labs and 1,75,936 Smart Classrooms  are sanctioned to State/UT Government(s) under the Scheme.

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.  States/UTs  collaborate  with NCERT  to  utilise,  monitor  and  evaluate  the  effectiveness  of  these  initiatives  as  per  their requirements. NCERT also provides regular guidance/ feedback to States/UTs on the quality of these initiatives.

The key components of PM eVidya includes 200 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 and 400 Radio 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.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) the Nation's digital infrastructure for providing  quality  e-content  for  school  education  in  States/UTs  and  QR  coded  Energized Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). 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.

Also,  the  Union  Budget  2025  includes  a  provision  under  the  BharatNet  project  to  extend broadband connectivity to government secondary schools in a phased manner.

National  Curriculum  Framework  for  the  Foundational  Stage  (NCF-FS)  2022  and  National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023 integrate the mental well-being of students in different aspects such as syllabi development, development of content in learning and teaching material, pedagogical practices etc.

Besides the above, 'Manodarpan', an initiative of the Ministry of Education (MoE) under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, implemented and monitored by NCERT, aims at creating a safe and supportive environment for students to thrive both academically and emotionally. Several activities  are  undertaken  through  Manodarpan  to  promote  mental  health  and  well-being amongst students in schools. These include running National toll-free helpline (844-844-0632), providing  guidance  through  Manodarpan  webpage  (https://manodarpan.education.gov.in/), conducting of surveys namely 'Survey on Mental Health and Well-being of School Students' and 'Teachers Mental Well Being Survey', facilitating celebration of Mental Health Week (4 th -10 th October) and World Mental Health Day (10 th October) across the country and development of materials and guidelines on mental well-being. Additionally, 'Sahyog' sessions are conducted from Monday to Friday, offering live interactions with practicing counsellors for students in classes VI-XII. These are supplemented by 'Paricharcha' webinars on Fridays, featuring experts discussing mental health and well-being, which are broadcasted through PM e-Vidya channels and the NCERT Official YouTube Channel.

In order to address stress, anxiety etc. among students, various initiatives such as sensitisation through  talks  in  morning  assembly,  adolescence  education  programmes,  yoga,  games  and sports,  scouts  and  guides,  NCC,  Ek  Bharat  Shreshth  Bharat,  Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, Provision of 10 Bagless days for students and Kala Utsav etc. are also taken up by many schools. Students are also involved in setting up School Nutrition Gardens (SNGs) through which they learn  life  skills  and  remain  connected  to  nature.  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  conceptualised  a unique  interactive  programme  -  'Pariksha  Pe  Charcha  (PPC)'  wherein  students,  parents, teachers across the Nation and also from overseas interact with the Hon'ble Prime Minister to discuss and overcome the stress emerging from examinations in order to celebrate life as an Utsav. So far 8 PPC events have been organised by the Ministry of Education. Separately, the Ministry  of  Health  &  Family  Welfare  has  launched  Tele  Mental  Health  Assistance  and Networking Across States (Tele MANAS) a toll-free mental health helpline (1800-89-14416 or short code 14416) that provides support and assistance to those struggling with mental health issues.

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