Budget 2022: Digital university to be set up for online learning

• A digital university will be set up open for all the Indian citizens to skill, upskill themselves.
• The university will be established in collaboration with various Indian universities.
• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced implementation of ‘e-vidya’, a TV channel for supplementary education for students.

India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday, announced that a Digital University, named ‘DESH-Stack portal’, for online learning will be set up, which will be built on a hub and spoke model. The university will be set up in collaboration with various universities in India.

This will be made available in different Indian languages and information and communications technology (ICT) formats. High-quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for delivery via internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through “digital teachers”.

The goal behind this initiative, which is open for the citizens of the country, is to skill, upskill or reskill. It will also provide API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

A National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) will also be aligned with the industry dynamic to promote continuous skilling avenues, sustainability, and employability.

She further added that a TV channel named ‘e-Vidya’, will also be implemented to provide supplementary education to children from class 1 to 12, especially for children in rural areas, to make up for the loss of the learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sitharaman said, “We recognise the need to impart supplementary teaching and to build a resilient mechanism for education delivery. For this purpose, ‘one class-one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1-12.”

Additionally, 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75 skilling e-labs for simulated learning environments, will be set-up in 2022-23 to promote crucial critical thinking skills, to give space for creativity.

She also mentioned that relevant skilling courses for ‘Drone-as-a-service’ will also be rolled out in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to promote ‘Drone Shakti’ among startups.

“The budget 2022 for the education sector rightly focuses on upskilling and digital learning. The budget has addressed structural issues in the education landscape and has ensured that all children get access to education. The budget has also well-coincided with the opening of schools as it is important to reverse the learning loss among students. The government must act to meet the needs of an aspiring generation which is looking to the future with great hope. Overall, it has given a boost to the education sector that will result in the nation’s progress,” said Ms. Shweta Sastri, Managing Director of the Canadian International School, Bengaluru.

Last year, the education sector was allocated ₹93,224 crore, which was 2.67 percent of the central government’s estimated budget for 2021-22.

For making the students ready for jobs, the government has also extended the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) for the next five years, with an outlay of ₹3054 crore which will make, through apprenticeship, around 9 lakh students employable, according to the Economic Survey 2022.

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