The Ministry of Education has informed that National Education Policy (NEP)-2020, inter alia, emphasized on digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking which are imperatives forcurriculum. It also provides that mathematics and computational thinking will be in curriculum throughout the school years, starting with the foundational stage and coding will be introduced at Middle Stage (Grades 6-8, covering ages 11-14). 

Keeping in view the availability of digital infrastructure, PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education have been issued on Digital/Online Education on 14th July, 2020. The guidelines brief on various modes of digital education including online mode that depends more on availability of internet, partially online mode that utilizes the blended approach of digital technology and other offline activities, and offline mode that utilizes television and radio as a major medium of instruction of education. It also outlines the support to be provided to students with special needs.

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. Depending on the states’ requirement the Ministry of Education provides Rs.6.40 Lakh for setting up computer labs and Rs.2.40 Lakh for smart classroom.

To facilitate online education, a comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar 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.

Further, under Samagra Shiksha, ICT component envisages covering all Government and Aided schools from classes VI to XII, subject to the availability of budgetary provision. Under this component, the 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 enrolments, an additional ICT lab can also be considered. The schools which have already availed ICT facility earlier can avail smart classrooms/tablets as per the norms of the scheme. For ICT lab, onetime non-recurring grant upto Rs. 6.4 Lakhs per school and a recurring grant of upto Rs. 2.40 lakh per school per annum is given for a period of 5 years. For Smart Classrooms, onetime Non-recurring grant of Rs. 2.40 lakh and the recurring grant of Rs. 0.38 lakh is given for a period of 5 years.

Under the scheme, 120614 ICT Labs and 82120 Smart Classrooms across the country have been sanctioned. The expenditure incurred under the scheme during the last two years under ICT and Digital Initiatives is as under: -

(In Crores of Rs.)

 

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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