Parliament Question: Digital education and ed-tech dependence

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4189 ANSWERED ON 01/04/2026 Digital education and ed-tech dependence 4189 Shri G.C. Chandrashekhar:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

(a) funds allocated and utilised for digital education platforms (DIKSHA, SWAYAM, PM e-Vidya) from 2021-22 to 2024-25;

(b) access gaps identified among rural, SC/ST and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students; and

(c) findings of any review on learning outcomes from digital modes? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (c): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the Government schools are under the administration of the State Government and its bodies. The Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha to enhance digital learning in schools across the country. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes. Under the initiatives, funds are provided for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirements of the State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B). As per UDISE + 2024-25 Report, 61.27% schools in rural areas have computer facilities across the country.

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 are also aligned towards enhancing digital literacy and include 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, 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 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) is the Nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs and QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). To promote crucial critical thinking skills and to give space for creativity, more than 614 Virtual Labs have been created and made available on the DIKSHA platform.

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.

The funds allocated and utilised for digital education platforms for DIKSHA, PM-eVidya from 2021-22 to 2024-25 are as below:

Name of 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 Digital (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) platform Allocate Utilised Allocat Utilised Allocat Utilised Allocat Utilised d ed ed ed DIKSHA 61.3 49.19 82.98 63.22 55.2 55.2 83.13 83.13 PM 20.31 16.36 384.76 220.03 313.41 302.96 241.25 185.34 eVidya The Department of Higher Education is implementing the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) in alignment with the vision of NEP 2020.The details of funds released under the NMEICT scheme including SWAYAM initiative during the period from 2021–22 to 2024–25 are furnished in the table

below:

2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 Scheme (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) (Rs in Cr) NMEICT 351.84 395.02 395.82 625.59 The Digital initiatives by the Ministry of Education are accessible to students including those from SC/ST, Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and rural areas.

To assess performance, the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 (formerly National Achievement Survey) was undertaken 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 in development of competencies among the students at the end of the Foundational, Preparatory, and Middle stages (Grades 3, 6, and 9 respectively) of schooling. Insights from the Sarvekshan may be accessed at

https://dashboard.parakh.ncert.gov.in/en/dashboard/IND18?tab=foundation. *****