Government is committed to ensure equal access to online education for all sections of society- Education Minister

Government is committed to ensure equal access to online education for all sections of society. Online resources are provided through the various initiativesof the Government – SWAYAM, SwayamPrabha, DIKSHA, e-Pathshala, e-PGPathshala, Virtual Labs, National Digital Library (NDL) and National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER).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. The initiative includes: –

1. Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) ranked in top 100 NIRF or NAAC score of 3.26 can offer online programme without prior approval of UGC. Institutions with NAAC score of 3.01 to 3.25 can offer online programme with prior approval of UGC. 
2. For conventional courses, the online content has been increased from up to 20% to 40% in regular degree programmes.
3. 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)
4. Study materials have been provided on an experimental basis for 12 channels for classes 1 to 12 on SWAYAM Prabha and actions are expedited to run these channels in a full-fledged manner.
5. Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- ShikshaVani
6. Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube.

Ministry of Education is sharing budgetary resources with MeitY to extend necessary infrastructure for NKN (National Knowledge Network) connectivity.

(c) As a capacity building measure for teachers and faculties, Government is operating NISHTHA and ARPIT programmes for School Education and Higher Education respectively. In addition to this, Higher Educational Institutions are taking their own initiative to prepare teachers for teaching online.

For NKN,Ministry of Education is collaborating with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. SwayamPrabha channels are available to all DD Free Dish subscribers across the country.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the RajyaSabha today.