Parliament Question: E-Vidya and Digital Classes

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 206 ANSWERED ON 21/07/2025 E-Vidya and Digital Classes †206. Smt. Bharti Pardhi: Dr. Bhola Singh: Shri Shrirang Appa Chandu Barne: Shri Amarsing Tisso: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the PM e-Vidya programme has been effectively implemented in rural areas particularly in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh along with tribal and hilly district of Assam including Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao; (b) the details of progress/status of implementing of digital and smart education initiatives like PM eVIDYA and DIKSHA, e-Pathshala and digital classrooms in the country particularly in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh and Assam; (c) the number of Government schools in rural districts equipped with digital infrastructure such as broadband internet, smart classrooms, tablets or digital boards, district-wise; (d) the details of steps taken by the Government to overcome the digital divide particularly for remote areas students so that equal access can be ensured for digital education resources and online education; (e) whether the Government has conducted any assessment regarding accessibility, effectiveness or usage gaps in such digital learning initiatives and if so, the key findings; (f) whether the Government considers that all districts, especially rural and backward ones, have sufficient basic education infrastructure and, if not, the measures being taken to address such deficiencies; and (g) the status of teacher training and content delivery through DIKSHA and SWAYAM platforms in all the districts and the number of employed Government school teachers, blockwise, including in Bulandshahr district? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (Shri Jayant Chaudhary) National Education Policy (NEP), which is a transformational policy emphasises that certain subjects, skills and capacities should be learned by all students including digitalliteracy, coding and computational thinking which are being promoted through various digital initiatives. A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of Aatma 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 the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. The PM eVidya initiative is supported through budget allocated under Samagra Shiksha scheme and implemented with the support of NCERT. The components of these initiatives are available to all the students across all the States/UTs free of cost. 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 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, the 12 DTH Channels have been expanded to 200 PM eVidya DTH TV 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, details as below: S.No State Channels Allocated 1 Assam DD AS PM eVIDYA 58 to DD AS PM eVIDYA 62 2 Madhya DD MP PM eVIDYA 108 to DD MP PM eVIDYA 112 Pradesh 3 Maharashtra DD MH PM eVIDYA 113 to DD MH PM eVIDYA 117 4 Uttar Pradesh DD UP PM eVIDYA 173 to DD UP PM eVIDYA 177 Further on 6th December, 2024, in consonance with the NEP 2020 recommendation for promotion of Indian Sign Language (ISL) and to ensure extensive reach of the learning-teaching material in ISL to a wider audience, Hon’ble Minister of Education launched a dedicated initiative promoting inclusive education through accessible learning resources for the hearing-impaired community through a dedicated PM eVidya DTH Channel (Ch. No. 31). Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NCERT/NIOS website and YouTube channels. One hour of content on Digital Literacy is broadcasted by NCERT daily on DTH Channels and YouTube to enhance the digital literacy of students and teachers in rural areas. DIKSHA: 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. Further, the courses on Computer Sciences on DIKSHA platform for Class XI and Class XII include Digital Literacy components. Name of the Registered Learning Learning e-content State Users Sessions Minutes Assam 3.44 Lakh 7.81 Cr 74.53 Cr 11,478 Madhya Pradesh 9.97 Lakh 54.05 Cr 30.82 Cr 5,751 Maharashtra 10.12 Lakh 775.55 Cr 331.88 Cr 22,640 Uttar Pradesh 25.97 Lakh 103.45 Cr 1405.27 Cr 16,974 In keeping with the recommendation of the NEP 2020, 117 Indian Language Primers have been released with a focus on enabling young learners and adults to access education in their mother tongue, including one Primer for Tamil. To promote crucial critical thinking skill and to give space for creativity, more than 300 Virtual Labs have been created and made available on DIKSHA platform.  Teacher Training: 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. NISHTHA courses are offered online by the NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high-quality professionally made e-content. Under NISHTHA (Elementary, Secondary, FLN and ECCE) about 65 lakh teachers including those from rural areas have been trained. NISHTHA is perhaps, one of the world's largest teacher training programs at India's scale. NCERT also offers 28 courses covering 11 subjects through the SWAYAM portal for classes XI-XII. Fourteen cycles have been completed and around 4,90,952 learners have been benefitted. District wise count of teachers in Government schools including Bulandshahr district can be accessed from UDISE+ portal (https://udiseplus.gov.in/#/en/page/publications). Education is part of Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the Government schools are under the administration of the State Government and its bodies. Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha to enhancedigital learning in Government schools across the country, including rural areas in Tamil Nadu. 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 requirement of State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B). The ICT scheme offers two options: 1. Option I: Schools without prior ICT facilities can choose ICT labs or smart classrooms. Schools with over 700 students may get an additional ICT lab. States/UTs can procure hardware, software, tablets, laptops, and training resources, supporting digital boards, virtual classrooms, and DTH channels. 2. Option II: Schools with existing ICT facilities can access smart classrooms or tablets under the scheme norms. The Ministry of Education, Government of India, publishes the UDISE report annually, which provides data on access to digital learning devices, internet connectivity, and related infrastructure. As per UDISE+ 2023-24 report, out of 3,51,734 schools in rural areas, 75,375 schools have ICT Labs, 1,00,599 schools have tablets, 34,848 schools have Digital Boards, 1,29,655 schools have Smart Classrooms with Digital Boards/Smart Boards/Virtual Classrooms/Smart TVs and 1,83,630 Schools have internet facilities. The detailed report can be accessed from UDISE+ portal (https://udiseplus.gov.in/#/en/page/publications). ************