Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 17, 2020 unveiled a Pradhan Mantri e-Vidya plan to ensure quality education continues to be imparted in an academic year hit by the Covid-19. Under this plan, 12 Direct to Home (DTH) channels, one for every class till 12th, will start beaming lessons right into students’ homes while the country’s top 100 higher education institutes will start new online courses.
This plan has following components:
- DIKSHA for school education in states/UTs: e-content and QR coded
Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform) - One earmarked TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)
- Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and Podcasts
- Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired.
- Top 100 universities will be permitted to automatically start online courses by 30th May, 2020.
Other announcements
Manodarpan: An initiative for psychosocial support of students, teachers and families for mental health and emotional wellbeing to be launched immediately.
New National Curriculum and Pedagogical framework for school, early childhood and teachers will be launched: integrated with global and 21st century skill requirements.
National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission for ensuring that every child attains Learning levels and outcomes in grade 5 by 2025 will be launched by December 2020.
