Over Rs 14.75 crore spent on PM eVIDYA initiative in FY 2020-21: Govt

Over Rs 14.75 crore was spent during the financial year 2020-2021 for PM eVIDYA, an initiative launched in May last year to unify all efforts to enable multi-mode access to education

Over Rs 14.75 crore was spent during the financial year 2020-2021 for PM eVIDYA, an initiative launched in May last year to unify all efforts related to digital, online and on-air learning to enable multi-mode access to education, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed Lok Sabha on Monday.

Pradhan gave the information in response to a written question about education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister also detailed the initiatives taken by states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra towards this end.

"A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on May 17, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital, online and on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education," Pradhan said.

The minister cited initiatives such as DIKSHA -- one nation, one digital platform -- for providing quality e-content for school education in states and union territories, Swayam Prabha TV channel, extensive use of radio, community radio and CBSE Podcast-Shiksha Vani, and special e-content for the visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website and YouTube.

"A total of Rs 14,75,74,274 was spent during the financial year 2020-2021, said Pradhan.

The minster informed that for connecting all the rural schools in the state of Rajasthan programmes like SMILE (Social Media Interface for Learning Engagement), e-Kaksha, Weekly WhatsApp Based Quiz, Digital Monitoring, Shala Darpan Student Tracking Module have been run by the state during the pandemic.