(a) whether the students of Kendriya Vidyalayas/ public-funded schools are getting continued access to education through online or other modes during the pandemic and if so, the details thereof; and
(b) whether the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to escalate the drop-out rates of students of underprivileged backgrounds and if so, the steps formulated for incentivising their continued interest in education?
MINISTER OF EDUCATION
(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)
(a) In the year 2020-21, COVID 19 was declared a global pandemic which caused an unprecedented public health emergency, affecting almost all countries and territories globally and the world came to standstill. However, in these challenging circumstances, the Ministry of Education took up the responsibility to continue the education of the students through multiple alternative ways while ensuring safety and wellbeing of the students. It was ensured that all major educational activities including conducting of exams, evaluating the answer sheets and declaration of results of the examinations were completed so that Academic Year of the students is not impacted.
Ministry of Education has held consultations with the states and UTs at various levels to plan the continuity of the learning of the students during pandemic and measures were taken so that children get uninterrupted education. In addition to this, training and capacity building of teachers was initiated. Infrastructure development for online and offline educational activities were accelerated to minimise the learning loss of the students. The Ministry has taken many initiatives during the pandemic which include the following:-
(i) A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education, which includes DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing), Swayam MOOCs for open schools and pre-service education, One Class One Channel of Swayam Prabha, Extensive use of TV Channels, Radio, Community radio and Podcasts, E-textbooks, National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER). Further, Alternative Academic Calendar, PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education & MANODARPAN for psychosocial support has also been initiated.
(ii) In order to enable online education benefit to the students of every category, the following Learning Enhancement Guidelines have been issued on 19 August 2020:
• Learning enhancement during COVID-19 for students without digital devices.
• Learning enhancement during COVID-19 for students with limited access to digital devices.
• Learning enhancement during COVID-19 for students with digital devices.
(iii) Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to compensate the loss of face to face teaching learning by rationalizing the syllabus for the Board/Annual Examinations for classes IX to XII to an extent of around 30 percent to alleviate the examination stress and extended the academic session and delayed Board examination for around three months to provide adequate preparation time to students.
(b) In order to mitigate the impact of challenges of COVID-19 pandemic for migrant children and for preventing drop outs, lower enrolments and loss of learning, guidelines for identification, smooth admission process and continued education of migrant children were issued by the Ministry of Education on 13.07.2020 to all States and UTs. The states have been asked to identify and enrol all children of migrant workers without any procedural formalities and maintain a database of migrant children admitted.
Further, in order to ensure that children have access to education with quality and equity and to minimize the impact of the pandemic on school education in the country, the detailed guidelines were issued on 7.1.2021 on steps that have to be taken by the States and UTs during school closure and at re-opening. The guidelines also include identification of out of school children from age 6-18 years, enrolment drives and awareness generation, student support while schools are closed, continued education for children with Special Needs (CWSN), student support on school reopening and teacher capacity building.
Under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha, financial assistance is provided to States and UTs for undertaking various activities such as mid-day meal in the form of food security allowance / dry ration to the students at elementary level.
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