Lok Sabha Question No. 47 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-01
Subject: Resources for Digital Education
Ministry: EDUCATION
Asked by: Shri Babu Singh Kushwaha

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 47

ANSWERED ON 01/12/2025

## Resources for Digital Education

†47. Shri Babu Singh Kushwaha:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether it is a fact that many Government schools in the country still lack the necessary resources  for  digital  education,  such  as  computers,  smart  classes,  internet  connections  and trained teachers, leaving students deprived of modern education, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether the Government has launched any special national scheme to strengthen digital education in schools of rural and backward regions, if so, the details thereof;

(c)  whether  the  Government  is  considering  to  ensure  that  every  Government  school  is equipped with digital classrooms, e-learning material and technically trained teachers so that all the children can receive uniform quality education; and

(d) if so, the details of the major steps taken so far by the Government in this direction?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (d): Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. The State Governments have been advised to act based on the situation prevailing at every place to meet the demands of students and teachers for providing them with the digital access required for teaching learning digitally.

Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  financial  assistance  is  provided  to  States/UTs,  including rural  and  backward  regions,  inter-alia  for  setting  up  of  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 available to the States and UTs for following two options:

Option I: Under this option, schools which have not availed the ICT facility earlier can either opt for ICT or smart classrooms as per their requirement and need. In case of more than 700 enrolment,  an  additional  ICT  lab  can  also  be  considered.  States/UTs  have  flexibility  to procure hardware such as tablets/ laptops/notebooks/ integrated teaching learning devices and open-source operating system as well as Hardware, Software, training and resource support. This would include support for digital boards, smart classrooms, virtual classrooms and DTH channels on pro-rata basis for number of schools approved.

Option II : Under this option, schools which have already availed the ICT facility earlier can avail smart classrooms/tablets as per the norms of the scheme.

Till date 1,77,088 ICT Labs and 1,76,728 Smart Classrooms have been sanctioned to State/UT  Governments.  This  includes  3,564  ICT  Labs  and  3,655  Smart  Classrooms sanctioned to saturate all Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) in 2024-25. This also includes 20,553 ICT Labs and 29,910 Smart Classrooms sanctioned to saturate all functional secondary and senior secondary schools with ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in 2025-26.

As  per  UDISE+  2024-25  data,  5,93,615  Government  Schools  are  equipped  with internet  connection.  Additionally,  the  Government  of  India,  in  the  Budget  2025,  has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary schools in rural areas,  under  the  'BharatNet'  project  to  enhance  digital  infrastructure  in  remote  areas  by BSNL in a phased manner.

A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan' on 17 th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education  to  enable  multi-mode  access  to  education  across  the  country  under  the  aegis  of National  Education  Policy  (NEP)  2020.  States/UTs  collaborate  with  NCERT  to  utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements in mother tongue/local/regional  languages.  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.

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  3.7  lakh  content  in  mother  tongue/ local/regional  languages  enabling  multilingualism.  Overall,  565.28  crore  learning  sessions have  been  completed  on  DIKSHA  by  students,  teachers  and  other  stakeholders.  The stakeholders have access to more than 450 Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs (50 each in Hindi and English) on DIKSHA.

Under  Samagra  Shiksha,  teacher  capacity  building  for  digital  education  is  being supported through the DIKSHA platform. The Department has also implemented NISHTHA (National Initiative for School Heads' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement) as an integrated teacher training programme on DIKSHA, covering modules on digital pedagogy, use of ICT tools and technology-enabled learning. Further, NCERT, SCERTs, DIETs, BRCs and CRCs undertake  development  of  resource  material,  digital  content,  training  programmes  and workshops to strengthen teachers' preparedness for digital education.

*****