Union Budget: Focus On Digital Universities & PM E-Vidya Scheme To Be Expanded To 200 Channels

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to set up a digital university with an aim to provide access to world-class education to Indian students in her Budget speech on Monday.

Presenting her Budget, Sitharaman the digital university will have programmes in different Indian languages and will be built on a network hub and spoke model.

About school education which has been badly impacted due to COVID-19, the Finance Minister said the Government recognises the need to build supplementary teaching resources for crores of children, mostly in Government schools have lost almost two years of formal schooling.

Focussing on digital learning, considering the prolonged closure of schools due to COVID-19, the Finance Minister said new e-learning content delivery platforms will be launched via the internet, TV and smartphones to help students in rural and semi-urban areas.

To boost education options in regional languages, Sitharaman expanded the PM-E Vidya Scheme from the existing 12 educational television channels to 200 channels.

Proposing the “One Class One television channel’ while announcing the scheme she said the move will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for Classes I to XII.

In this regard, the Centre is taking steps to develop high quality e-content and plans are also on the anvil to equip teachers with such digital tools.

The E-Vidya programme was introduced in May 2020 to help children unable to access the internet for online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic to continue their education through TV programmes.

Other proposals on the education front include; New skill development courses will be introduced in the state ITIs to enable the youth of the country.

The Centre also laid focus on agri education. She proposed to revise syllabus of agricultural universities to meet needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture.

The government has also decided to allow setting up of foreign universities in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT city) to provide courses in financial management, fin-tech, mathematics among others.

Other takeaways from education budget:

Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to promote critical thinking skills and
stimulated learning environment

Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal)
will be launched to promote online training

Startups will be promoted to facilitate Drone Shakti for Drone-As-A-Service