Question : Education Schemes for Rural Areas

(a) the details of the schemes/projects running in the country specially in the rural areas for the proliferation of education specially in Rajasthan and Haryana;

(b) the details of the action plan formulated for developing infrastructure for the basic education in the rural areas such as Smart Board and online education APP and bringing improvement in the quality of education being implemented by the teachers in rural schools for the year 2020-2021, State-wise;

(c) the amount of budget allocated by the Government for the purpose; and

(d) the steps proposed to be taken by the Government to provide online education to the students of all the Government schools?

MINISTER OF EDUCATION

(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ''NISHANK'')

(a) to (d): Samagra Shiksha, an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12, is running in the country including rural areas and the States of Rajasthan & Haryana since 2018-19. The vision of the scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for Education. Under Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided to all States and UTs for implementation of various interventions like opening of new schools & providing infrastructural facilities, free textbooks and uniforms, setting up and running of residential schools and hostels including Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, provisions for inclusive education of Children with Special Needs (CWSN), transport & escort facility, in-service training of teachers, ICT, vocational education and other activities.

Various efforts have been made for the creation of digital infrastructure for online learning in the form of DIKSHA portal (https://diksha.gov.in/), SWAYAM Portal (swayam.gov.in), SWAYAM Prabha, DD Channel, e-Pathshala (https://epathshala.nic.in/), NROER (National Repository of Open Educational Resources) portal (https://nroer.gov.in/welcome), radio, community radio and CBSE podcasts etc. The medium of TV, radio can be used by the students who do not have access to digital means.

Education is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and majority of the schools come under the purview of the respective State and UT Governments. During 2020-21, details of total budgetary allocation made by the Central Government for smart class room, ICT and Teacher’s education are as under:
(Rs. in Crore)
Sl. No. Intervention 2020-21*
1. Smart Classroom 224.49
2. ICT 763.04
3. Teachers Education 267.91
(Source *PRABANDH)
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