New Delhi: To enhance online and digital education following closure of schools and colleges due to lockdown in the aftermath of the Coronavirus outbreak, the Government has planned “PM E Vidya” and has included 100 universities in the country and to open a channel for every class.
Announcing the fifth and last tranche of the Rs 20-lakh crore Covid-19 packages as part of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressing a press conference here on Sunday, revealed the “One Nation One Digital Platform” programme as part of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’.
Stressing that reforms would be the focus of the fifth and final tranche of the economic stimulus package to deal with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said the package unveiled by her today would focus on MGNREGA, healthcare and education, businesses, de-criminalisation of the Companies Act, ease of doing business, public sector undertakings, and resources related to state government.
Welcoming the announcement, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ms Sitharaman outlined several steps that have been taken to promote online education in schools and colleges, in which radio, community radio and podcasts will be used in addition to DTH channels. Students will be taught reading using Prabha platform itself, Diksha platform e Pathshala.
She said 12 more channels will be started and from the first grade there will be a channel for class XII from this, it will be broadcast from 0800 hrs to 1400 hrs or 1900 hrs pm to 0100 hrs. Besides, there will be live dialogues with the students with the help of Skype. Along with this, they will be broadcast through Tata Sky, Airtel, Videocon and Jio apps.
Digital education will be provided. Audio and sign language will also be imparted to the hearing impaired children.
The Finance Minister informed that online education will be started in 100 top universities of the country.
Ms Sitharaman said 6 million hits have been received so far on the initiation platform from March 24 and 200 new e-books have also been added. Swayam Prabha Channel will broadcast four hours every day. So far, 90,000 students have been enrolled on 16 platforms from March 16 on their own.
