Question : Online Education

(a) whether the Government has set any guidelines and standards for online education in the country and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the mechanism devised to ensure that online educators abide by the guidelines and standards set by the Government;
(c) whether the Government is also aware about the security concerns about various video conferencing Apps and if so, the steps taken/being taken by the Government to standardise the usage of a relatively safe video conferencing App for online education;
(d) whether the Government is considering approving online schools and if so, the eligibility criteria and the standards proposed to be kept up by such online schools and if not, the reasons therefor; and
(e) whether the Government recognises re-skilling of existing school teachers to impart online classes and if so, the steps taken/being taken by the Government to re-skill school teachers?

MINISTER OF EDUCATION

(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)
Part (a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the table of the House.

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STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (E) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 81 ASKED BY SHRI PRATHAP SIMHA AND SHRI L.S. TEJASVI SURYA, HON’BLE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT REGARDING ONLINE EDUCATION.

(a) and (b) Yes, PRAGYATA guidelines have been issued for school education after consultation with all States and UTs. PRAGYATA has detailed discussion on guidelines and standards for online education. This can be accessed at following link
https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/pragyata-guidelines_0.pdf

For higher education UGC also has notified University Grants Commission (Open and Distance Learning Programmes and Online Programmes) Regulations, 2020 on 04th September, 2020, which can be accessed at https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/221580.pdf.

(c) Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has prepared guidelines to handle the security concerns about various video conferencing apps, which can be found on link https://www.cert-in.org.in/s2cMainServlet?pageid=PUBWEL01

(d) There is no such proposal for opening online schools.

(e) NISHTHA (Online Teacher Training-for Professional Development) has been launched to provide training on new methods of teaching. It consists of 18 modules including one mandatory module on integration of ICT in education. 23 lakh teachers have registered for online courses and all teachers of India shall be trained on ICT.


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