Parliament Question: Digital Education Initiative aligned with NEP 2020

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3587 ANSWERED ON 11/08/2025 Digital Education Initiative aligned with NEP 2020 3587. Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad: Smt. Supriya Sule: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has launched any specific digital education initiatives in alignment with NEP 2020 particularly in rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra, if so, the details thereof; (b) the total number of benefitted schools and students under the schemes in Maharashtra, district-wise; (c) whether Teacher Training and Digital Pedagogy Orientation has been conducted in Maharashtra under the scheme, if so, the details thereof: (d) whether any collaboration with EdTech Companies, NGOs has been explored for enhancing digital education infrastructure under NEP 2020 in Maharashtra, if so, the details thereof along with names of partners and nature of collaboration; and (e) whether the Government has any future plans for expanding or upgrading the digital education infrastructure in Maharashtra under NEP 2020, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (e): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the administration of the respective State Governments. There are several comprehensive digital education initiatives undertaken for all students across India including rural and tribal students by this Ministry. The Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes including hardware, software, tablets, laptops, and training resources, supporting digital boards, virtual classrooms, and DTH channels. Under the scheme, funds are provided for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirement of the State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B). 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 including those in the rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra. States/Union Territories (UTs) collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. 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. The State of Maharashtra has been allotted five channels (MH PM eVIDYA 113 to MH PM eVIDYA 117) under the ‘PM eVidya’ initiative of the Ministry of Education.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 3.69 lakh content in local/regional languages. 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. Maharashtra is one of the participants on DIKSHA and has 10.15 lakh registered users with Learning sessions of 30.84 cr+ and 332.07 cr+ Learning minutes. The State has uploaded 687 Digital Textbooks and has 22,662 e-content on DIKSHA that can be accessed by all students in the country including those in rural and tribal districts of Maharashtra. The Ministry of Education (MoE) is implementing a National mission to improve learning outcomes at the School Education level through an integrated teacher training programme called ‘National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement’ (NISHTHA). NISHTHA courses have been designed and are run for Elementary, Secondary, FLN, ECCE and Educational Technology and are offered online by NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high-quality professionally made e-content. As per NEP 2020 mandate, every teacher has to undergo a minimum of 50 hours of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) per year, focused on pedagogy, digital literacy and subject-specific expertise. 22.73 lakh beneficiaries from Maharashtra got certified by taking courses on NISHTHA through DIKSHA platform. Under National Mission in Education through ICT (NMEICT) Scheme, Ministry of Education in collaboration with IIT Madras has launched Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) portal to make available high-quality content to learners free of cost with the approach of “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning”. SWAYAM portal provides high-quality educational content across various domains, curated by premier Institutions for a well-rounded learning experience. The platform has hosted over 16,530 courses, including 4,100 unique courses till date. The cumulative enrolments have crossed 5 crore mark, with more than 1.62 crore unique learners. The Union Budget 2025 includes a provision under the BharatNet project to extend broadband connectivity to government secondary schools in rural areas in a phased manner, through BSNL. To saturate all secondary and higher secondary schools with ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms, a Supplementary Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting was held on 28th May 2025. A total of 20,456 ICT Labs and 29,896 Smart Classrooms have been approved, with financial approval of Rs. 911.13 crore for ICT Labs and Rs. 630.38 crore for Smart Classrooms under Samagra Shiksha, in addition to earlier approval of 1,56,213 ICT Labs and 1,46,040 Smart Classrooms. The State of Maharashtra has been approved for 839 ICT Labs and 851 Smart Classrooms for secondary and senior secondary schools. The State of Maharashtra has informed that they are collaborating with EdTech Companies and NGOs like Pi Jam Foundation (for the School Quality Assessment and Assurance Framework (SQAAF) through an online self-assessment), UNICEF – UniLearn Platform (for blended-mode Early Childhood Education Certificate), Khan Academy (to implement the Dr. Jayant Narlikar Maths and Science Learning Enhancement Programme for Classes 1 to 10) and Vowels of the People Association -VOPA (as part of the NIPUN Maharashtra initiative) for enhancing digital education infrastructure under NEP 2020. ***************