Parliament Question: e-Learning Hubs

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 302 ANSWERED ON 11.08.2025 e-Learning Hubs †*302. SHRI SUKHJINDER SINGH RANDHAWA:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government proposes to increase the availability of e-learning hubs and wireless internet infrastructure at village level in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot in Punjab under Digital India Mission;

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

(c) whether the Government proposes to introduce Village Digital Equity Index to provide digital resources to backward and digitally deprived villages on priority basis;

(d) whether any proposal is under consideration of the Government to formulate a special digital education plan for rural children; and

(e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor? ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 302 FOR 11.08.2025 ASKED BY SHRI SUKHJINDER SINGH RANDHAWA, HON’BLE MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT REGARDING E-LEARNING HUBS

(a) to (e): Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the schools are under the administration of the respective State Governments. While this Ministry does not compute Village Digital Equity Index and there is no scheme specifically called “e- Learning Hubs” under its purview, there are several comprehensive digital education initiatives undertaken for rural students. This Ministry implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. These initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into learning and teaching processes.

To facilitate the online learning by all students including those in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot, a comprehensive initiative called „PM eVidya‟ was initiated as part of „Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan‟ on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country. States/UTs collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. PM eVidya includes 200 DTH TV Channels allotted to States/UTs/ABs/Other Ministries and 400 Radio channels to enable them to provide supplementary education as per their requirement in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. The State of Punjab has been allotted five channels (PB PM eVIDYA 143 to PB PM eVIDYA 147) under the „PM eVidya‟ initiative of the Ministry of Education.

Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation‟s digital platform for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs along with QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). As a participant in DIKSHA, States/UTs/ABs have generated and contributed over 3.69 lakh content in local/regional languages. Overall, 564.05 crore learning sessions have been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. The stakeholders have access to more than 300 Virtual Labs on DIKSHA.

Punjab is one of the participants on DIKSHA and has 6.60 lakh registered users with Learning sessions of 8.40 Cr+ and 75.41 Cr+ Learning minutes. The State has uploaded 79 Digital Textbooks and has 6,350 e-content on DIKSHA.

Under National Mission in Education through ICT (NMEICT) Scheme, Ministry of Education in collaboration with IIT Madras has launched Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) portal to make available high-quality content to learners free of cost with the approach of “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime Learning”. SWAYAM portal provides high-quality educational content across various domains, curated by premier Institutions for a well-rounded learning experience. The platform has hosted over 16,530 courses, including 4,100 unique courses till date. The cumulative enrolments have crossed 5 Crore mark, with more than 1.62 crore unique learners.The Ministry of Education (MoE) is implementing a National mission to improve learning outcomes at the School Education level through an integrated teacher training programme called „National Initiative for School Heads‟ and Teachers‟ Holistic Advancement‟ (NISHTHA). NISHTHA courses have been designed and are run for Elementary, Secondary, FLN, ECCE and Educational Technology and are offered online by NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high-quality professionally made e-content.

Additionally, the Government of India, in the Budget 2025, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary schools in rural areas, including Punjab, under the „BharatNet‟ project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas by BSNL in a phased manner.

The Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha, aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes including hardware, software, tablets, laptops, and training resources, supporting digital boards, virtual classrooms, and DTH channels. Under the scheme, funds are provided for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirement of State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B).

To saturate all secondary and higher secondary schools with ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms, a Supplementary Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting was held on 28th May

2025. A total of 20,456 ICT Labs and 29,896 Smart Classrooms have been approved, with financial approval of Rs. 911.13 crore for ICT Labs and Rs. 630.38 crore for Smart Classrooms under Samagra Shiksha, in addition to earlier approval of 1,56,213 ICT Labs and 1,46,040 Smart Classrooms including State of Punjab.

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