Question : Digital Education

(a) the details of benefits accrued to the youth of the rural areas through Digital University;
(b) the funds allocated and utilised along with the details of heads wherein these funds were spent by the State Governments for the promotion of digital education in the country during the last three years and the current year;
(c) the allocation of budget out of the Union Budget and the expenditure incurred out of the total allocated budget for the programmes of school education, literacy and higher education from 2014-15 to 2020-21; and
(d) the details of budget percentage given by the Government out of the total allocated budget for primary education, literacy and higher education during the above said period, year-wise?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

(DR. SUBHAS SARKAR)

(a)Establishment of Digital University is one of the F.Y. 2022-23 budget announcements. It envisages to provide access to students from rural as well as urban areas, across the country, for world-class quality universal education with personalized learning experience at their doorsteps in different Indian languages and ICT formats.
(b)For promotion of Digital Education, Department of Higher Education has undertaken various digital initiatives like SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha, NDL, Virtual Lab, e-Yantra etc under ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology’ (NMEICT) Scheme.This is a Central Sector Scheme under which funds are given to various Implementing Agencies and no allocation is met to State Governments.
However, Department of School Education and Literacy provides grants to States/UTs for promotion of Digital Education programmes viz. establishing ICT Lab in Schools and Smart classroom under Samagra Shiksha.
Details of Financial approval and expenditure for ICT labs Since the year 2017-18 and Smart classroom under Samagra Shiksha for the years 2020-21 and 2021-22 is annexed at Annexure-I and Annexure-II and Webpage available at https://www.education.gov.in/en/parl_ques
(c) and (d) The allocation of Budget and the expenditure incurred under higher education and School Education and Literacy from 2014-15 to 2020-21 is as under: