The Central Government has launched an Integrated Scheme for school education- Samagra Shiksha, which subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) , Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education, from the year 2018-19. Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha, Information & Communication Technology (ICT) component envisages covering all Government and Government Aided schools from classes VI to XII, subject to the availability of budgetary provision, progress of approved interventions and receipt of proposals from the States/UTs.
So far, about 1,79,498 upper primary, secondary & senior secondary schools have been approved for coverage under ICT component of the respective schemes. Further, the Government has undertaken various initiatives for providing education through digital means such as:
- ICT in Education Curriculum for School System – ICT curriculum for teachers and students has been developed by NCERT. Students’ curriculum was piloted in 588 Navodaya Vidyalayas for one year. 805 MRPs/ KRPs of thirty states were oriented on roll-out of ICT curriculum for students and teachers in the respective states.
- e-pathshala – e-pathshala has been developed by NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) for showcasing and disseminating all educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of other print and non-print materials. So far, 3444 audios and videos, 698 e-books (e-pubs) and 504 flip books have been made available on the portal and mobile app.
- National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) – The National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) is an initiative to bring together all digital and digitisable resources across all stages of school education and teacher education. So far, 13635 files including 401 collections, 2722 documents, 565 interactive, 1664 audios, 2581 images and 6105 videos have been made available over the portal. States/ UTs are motivated to contribute resources on NROER and create OERs for their own State/ UT.
- SWAYAM:- The ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds’ (SWAYAM) is an integrated platform for online courses, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and covering school (9th to 12th) to Post Graduate Level. It offers online courses for students, teachers and teacher educators. It may be accessed on swayam.gov.in. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is promoting education through e-learning methods by providing courses on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the portal. There are 44 courses of NIOS offered on SWAYAM platform – 14 at secondary level, 16 at senior secondary level, 4 vocational courses and 10 courses of Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed.). NCERT has so far developed 22 courses for classes XI-XII in different subject areas.
- SWAYAM PRABHA:- A programme for utilization of satellite communication technologies for transmission of educational e-contents through 32 National Channels i.e. SWAYAM PRABHA DTH-TV has been launched. CIET-NCERT is the national coordinator for one DTH TV channel i.e., Kishore Manch (#31) and has started feeding a 24×7 educational TV channel w.e.f. 09.07.2018. Everyday four hour fresh slot is telecast and repeated 5 more times in 24 hours to provide learning opportunities for the stake holders, as per their convenience. Besides, NIOS is running 5 channels for teachers, for secondary and senior secondary levels and for sign language.
- CBSE initiatives:- SARANSH is a tool for comprehensive self review and analysis for CBSE affiliated schools and parents. It enables them to analyse students’ performance in order to take remedial measures. SARANSH brings schools, teachers and parents closer, so that they can monitor the progress of students and help them improve their performance. It helps schools to compare their performance vis-à-vis all CBSE schools at various levels and also helps parents to compare their ward’s performance within school State, Region and National level. It is currently available for Standards IX – XII and provides a comprehensive overview of Standard X performance since 2007 and Standard XII performance since 2009, till the current academic session.
- KVS initiatives:- ICT Skills are imparted in all the Kendriya Vidyalayas to the students of classes III to XII. 12011 e-Classrooms (9711 e-Classrooms established and 2300 under process) have been established in Kendriya Vidyalayas throughout the country for facilitating effective learning through digital mode. Besides, 276 Digital Language Labs and 1137 Computer labs have been established in 276 KVs across the Country. Further, a pilot project e-Prajna has been started for providing tablets pre-loaded with e-content in Maths and Science. 5076 Touch Tablets have been distributed among Class VIII Students and teachers for classroom transactions in Maths and Science.
- Operation Digital Board:- An initiative has been taken by Government of India to provide interactive digital boards to nearly 15 lakh classrooms across the country for 9th standard to post graduate level, where they can receive lectures from best teachers/professors and access quality e-content, in order to enhance overall learning process and experience of the students.
