Centre on Monday assured additional funds to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore for continuity of various educational initiatives as schools and colleges shifted classes online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank gave the assurance at a meeting of school education secretaries of all the states and union territories and also sought suggestions on Class 12 Board exams, which have been deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Among the suggestions that were made at the meeting were connecting all schools to BharatNet, the broadband network and provision of digital devices to secondary school students.
“A Covid action plan to ensure uninterrupted education is required,” Nishank told the meeting.
Earlier this month, the ministry had decided to focus on out of school children, ensuring sustained enrolment, retention, and transition; capacity building with a focus on blended and home-based learning and cognitive development of students as part of its Covid Response initiative.
Under the Samagra Shiksha initiative, the Centre had identified areas such as the provision of supplementary material to children, support for out of school children of the age group of 16-19 years through open schools, teacher’s grants for awareness on safety and security in online mode and for enabling them to use online means of education.
“Further, ad-hoc grants to the tune of Rs 5,228 crore have already been released to the states under Samagra Shiksha and an amount of Rs 2,500 crore will be released soon to ensure continuity of various educational initiatives by the states and UTs,” an official statement said.
(Published 17 May 2021, 16:33 IST)
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