Question : Increase in Out of School Children

(a) whether the Government has taken cognizance of the recent increase in out of school children to 5.5 percent as per the Annual status of Education report;

(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, reasons therefor;

(c) whether the Government has assessed the gap between the demand and availability of adequate digital infrastructure for students in rural areas and from economically weaker sections and if so, the details thereof;

(d) if not, the reasons therefor; and

(e) the number of schools in rural areas that have been equipped with digital infrastructure from march 2020 to November, 2021?

Answer given by the minister


MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

(SMT. ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a) & (b): The Government of India has held the National Achievement Survey for classes 3, 5, 8, and 10 on 12.11.2021 covering (a) Government Schools (Central Government and State Government); (b) Government Aided Schools; and (c) Private Unaided Schools.

The objective of NAS 2021 is to evaluate children''s progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the health of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels.

(c) & (d): Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. However, in order to ensure that every student of the country gets continued access to education, a multi-pronged approach has been adopted. Regarding school education, to facilitate the online learning by
all students a comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes:

? DIKSHA the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in states/UTs: and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform)

? One earmarked Swayam Prabha TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)

? Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani

? Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube

Further, an Alternate Academic Calendar has been prepared for providing learning solutions for grade 1 to 12 and ‘Students’ Learning Enhancement Guidelines’ prepared by NCERT suggest models for the following three types of scenarios to ensure that no child is deprived of reach of education:

a) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students without digital devices;
b) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with limited accessibility to digital devices &
c) Learning Enhancement during COVID-19 for students with digital devices.

Also, PRAGYATA guidelines issued to States/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes. The guidelines inter-alia includes situations where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less bandwidth where resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio etc that do not depend on internet.

Where the digital facility (mobile device/ DTH television) is not available, Ministry of Education has taken many initiatives like Community Radio Stations and a podcast called Shiksha Vani of CBSE, Textbooks, worksheet supplied to residence of learners, Handbook on 21st Century Skills and community/mohalla classes are organized. Innovation Funds of the Department are used to set up mobile school, virtual studios, virtual class rooms in schools, Continuous Learning Plan (CLP) for States/UTs has been initiated in all States/UTs, pre-loaded tablets in various states and UTs are effectively used in remote/rural areas where online classes are difficult.
Under the BharatNet programme, the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd (CSC-SPV) of MeitY has been assigned the task of providing Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connectivity to the Government Institutions, including schools.

(e): As per UDISE 2020-21, the details of government schools in rural areas having digital infrastructure is as follow:-



Digital Infrastructure No. of Schools

ICT Lab 55885

PCs with Integrated Teaching Learning Devices 53894

Digital Board 22224



Further, under ICT component of the scheme of Samagra Shiksha, the following interventions have been approved in the schools
during 2020-21 & 2021-22:



Year ICT Labs Smart Classrooms

2020-21 4090 16223

2021-22 10778 42276



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