Parliament Question: Lack of Educational Infrastructure in Aspirational Districts of Uttar Pradesh

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO - 3655 ANSWERED ON – 10/08/2026 Lack of Educational Infrastructure in Aspirational Districts of Uttar Pradesh †3655. Shri Ram Shiromani Verma: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that many Government schools in the aspirational districts like Shravasti and Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh lack smart classrooms, science laboratories, computer laboratories and digital education resources, if so, the details thereof; (b) whether any concrete steps have been taken by the Government to provide digital and quality education in the said districts under the National Education Policy-2020, if so, the details thereof; and (c) whether the Government is considering implementing any special scheme to provide modern educational resources in all Government schools and if so, the details thereof along with the proposed timeline therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (c): Education being in the concurrent list with majority of the schools under the domain of the State and UTs, the primary responsibility of providing accessible, affordable, equitable, inclusive and quality education lies with the State/UT Governments. As reported on UDISE+ 2025-26, there are 71 ICT/Computer Labs, 462 Smart Classrooms, 6 Physics Labs, 6 Chemistry Labs and 5 Biology Labs in Government Schools of the district of Shravasti. There are 132 ICT/Computer Labs, 357 Smart Classrooms, 5 Physics Labs, 5 Chemistry Labs and 4 Biology Labs in Government Schools of the district of Balrampur. Ministry of Education has taken several initiatives to provide digital and modern educational resources in the country. More specifically, besides ICT and Smart Classes, the Ministry implements digital initiatives such as PM eVidya, DIKSHA and SWAYAM under Samagra Shiksha to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. These initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes. Under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided to all States/UTs including aspirational districts of State of Uttar Pradesh for setting up of ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms in Government Schools having classes VI to XII. The financial assistance is provided based on proposals submitted in the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) by the State/UT. These proposals then appraised/approved by PAB in consultation with the States and UTs as per the programmatic and financial norms of the scheme and availability of budgetary andfinancial resources. The proposals of State of Uttar Pradesh under Samagra Shiksha are approved as per norms of the scheme. 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/Autonomous Bodies (ABs) have generated and contributed over 3.67 lakh content in mother tongue/local/regional languages enabling multilingualism. Details of e-content available in regional languages can be accessed at https://diksha.gov.in/data/. Overall, 579.41 crore learning sessions for 2.29 crore users have been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. The stakeholders also have access to more than 836 Virtual Labs on DIKSHA that help them with simulation of real-world laboratory environment. The platform supports both online and offline access, enabling learners to download content and continue learning without internet connectivity. In 2025-26, DIKSHA platform was used by more than 2.24 lakh students, 11 lakh teachers and 0.13 lakh parents in the State of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has 26.89 lakh registered users, 254 energised textbooks and contributed more than 17,000 e-content on the DIKSHA platform. A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya has been launched, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country. The key components of PM eVidya are also aligned towards enhancing digital literacy and include 200 DTH TV channels and 400 Radio channels to enable all States/UTs to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1- 12. Under the PM eVidya 200 DTH TV Channels initiative, the State of Uttar Pradesh has been allotted five (UP PM eVidya 173-177) dedicated channels. As informed by State of Uttar Pradesh, to enhance the quality of education and classroom teaching-learning practices, structured pedagogy-based Teaching-Learning Materials (TLMs), including Teacher Guides, Workbooks, Mathematics Kits, and Teacher Diaries, have been provided. Annual face-to-face teacher training is conducted to strengthen pedagogical practices, supplemented by continuous on-site academic support through supportive supervision. Further, to promote peer learning and continuous professional development among teachers, Shikshak Sankul meetings are organised every month at the Nyaya Panchayat level. Further, PM SHRI schools envisages to showcase all the initiatives of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, be the exemplar schools, and also offer benchmarking leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood. Presently, there are 19 PM SHRI schools functional in the district of Balrampur (including 1 Kendriya Vidyalaya and 1 Navodaya Vidyalaya) and 13 PM SHRI in the district of Shrawasti (including 1 Kendriya Vidyalaya and 1 Navodaya Vidyalaya). *******