India to cross China Population in 2023: UNDESA

Prof. Arun C Mehta

On the occasion of International Population day, the United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs (UNDESA) released the World Population Prospects 2022 (WPP) which reveals that India will over cross the population of China in 2023. As per the WPP, India total population of India will touch 1,428 million in 2023 as against the population of China which is expected to be 1,426 million in 2023.

Even though the margin of the population between the two countries will be only 2 million but India will continue to be the most populous country in the World and its population in 2064 is expected to touch 1,697 million people. The entire world’s global population is expected to touch around 8,000 million in 2023; which gives India’s share of the total population of 17.85 percent. However, it is predicted that India's population will gradually come down to 1530 million in the year 2100. Even then, India will have more people than China which is predicted to have 1425 million people in the year 2100.

 The Worlds population is predicted to be 9000 million in 2038 and India’s share of 17.85 percent of the world's population, continues then India would have an approximate 1607 million people which would be 179 million more people than in the year 2023. It may be recalled that India’s population in the latest 2011 Census was 12,10,855 thousand in view of which India is expected to have 217 million more people in 2023 than in 2011 which comes to an increase of around 17.93 percent.

 It may be recalled that the Report of the Expert Group on Population Projections set up by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare released in June 2020, projected India's population to be 13,83,163 thousand people in 2023 which is much below the latest projection of India’s population released by the UNDESA through WPP which has large implications for India to move towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in general and Goal 4 on Education in particular. The difference between the two estimates is huge and to the tune of 45 million (4.5 Crores). The difference in the total population is also likely to be reflected in the school-going age population which if happens many of the present indicators, mostly enrolment-based indicators would be required to be relocked into. However, when the 2021 Census figures are available would throw more light on the status of school education in terms of universal enrolment.

 The Population predictions by the UNDESA and their implications can be understood more through the following graphs published in the Hindustan Times on 12th July 2022 (Delhi NCER Edition). Readers are advised to give full reference of the material used in any form of use.

 

1. India will overtake China as the most populous country in 2023

 2. The World population is growing but at a slow pace

 3. Which countries will drive the rise?

 4. Are the drivers of growth similar?

 5. How did the pandemic affect the population?

 

 The UNDESA predictions further suggest that the COVID19 pandemic might have affected the global population in three ways but have conclusive evidence only in the case of only one way i.e. fall in global life expectancy at birth to 71 years in 2022 from a high 72.8 in 2019 which is found to be true for across the regions of the World except for the West & Central Africa. East and Southern Asia also experienced the highest decrease which is to the tune of 1.8 percent from 63.1 years in 2019 to 62.5 years in 2022.

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Observations on Samagra Shiksha

Free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen is the constitutional commitment in India. Despite spectacular quantitative expansion in every sphere of elementary education, the goal to achieve universal enrolment is still a far distant dream in a real sense.  While adopting the constitution in 1950, the goal of UEE was to be achieved in ten years i.e. 1960.  Keeping in view the educational facilities available in the country at that time, the goal of UEE was far too ambitious to achieve in a short span of ten years.  Hence, the target date was revised several times.  During the decade 1991-2001, a number of Centrally Sponsored Schemes, as well as, new programmes and projects were initiated across the country.  The Operation Blackboard scheme initiated in 1987 also got momentum during this period so as the large number of District Institutes of Educational Training (DIETs) established across the country. 

The Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project, Bihar Education Project, UP Basic Education Project, Lok Jumbish and Shiksha Karmi projects of Rajasthan and District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) were the main state-specific programmes initiated during 1991-2001. The mid-day meal scheme was also initiated during this period. Primary education remained the focus of all these programmes. The DPEP which came to an end in 2000 was implemented in 272 districts across 18 states. 

The most recent ambitious programme, namely Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched by the Government of India in 2001envisaged covering all non-DPEP districts before the end of the Ninth Five-Year Plan with a focus on the entire elementary level of education. 

Initially, the focus of SSA was to further strengthen infrastructure in schools which was later shifted initially to increase enrolment (in terms of enrolment ratio, drop-out, and transition rate) and later focused more on improving quality of education. Under the aegis of SSA, a number of programmes were launched and several studies were conducted (mostly by the Technical Support Group of SSA) in the beginning but later the momentum couldn’t be maintained. One of the significant visible achievements of SSA was strengthening the Educational Management Information System through DISE/U-DISE initiatives which had later acquired the status of the Official Statistics in 2012-13.

Initially, the aim of SSA was to bring all the out-of-school, never enrolled, and dropped-out children back to school by 2003, achieve UPE by 2007, and UEE with satisfactorily quality of education by 2010 but nobody knows what had happened to all these targets. Targets of 2003, 2005, and 2010 show national commitment but no state-specific targets were set down in the process of which all states including Kerala and Bihar was given the same year to achieve the objectives of SSA. Neither district-specific target was set down.

A thorough diagnosis exercise would have revel how many years a state and district would take to achieve the goal of UPE and UEE but the momentum of data analysis couldn’t be maintained barring an initial period of SSA. Later the concept of participatory planning lost focus so as the development of district plans in a decentralized mode. 

A number of capacity building programmes with an emphasis on the data analysis and use of indicators in planning were conducted across the county.  Barring the initial period, later district plans started formulating at the State level and planning teams remained on paper.  In most cases, Block development plans as envisaged in SSA couldn’t be developed so as the School Development plans based on which District plans were envisaged to be developed. 

In 2007, SSA extended to the secondary level of education in the form of RMSA. In 2009, Right to Education was enacted ensuring that every child of age 6 to 14 years is enrolled because of which there is no target year by which UPE and UEE are to be achieved which is continued. The local authorities are supposed to identify out-of-school children at the beginning of an academic year which is then to provide special training of 2 months to 3 years and then to make them sit in the age-appropriate class. No data is available as to how many such students were made to sit in a class and how many of them continued and have completed Grade V and VIII. Change in the planning methodology because RTE is also not available in the public domain but district plans continued to be developed based on the EXCEL Tables.

SSA inherited a legacy of rich experience of DPEP but it couldn’t sustain many of the best practices of the DPEP and it had become a routine and mechanical exercise year after year and lost focus. During the entire period of SSA, 2001 to 2018, it was never externally reviewed barring annual review by the Joint Review Mission even though there was a change in the federal government.   For about 15 years, SSA plans were being formulated, appraised, approved and money released based on the 50+ Excel Tables provided by the Technical Support Group of SSA.  

In the initial years of SSA, the process of plan formulation was a bit scientific but later everything gained over the previous such programmes lost and plans lack academic flavour.  NIEPA is said to be known as an apex body in the areas of capacity building and planning and had played an important role during DPEP implementation. But so far as the SSA is concerned its planning methodology, barring an initial period is not in the public domain.
It never took up the issue of plans being formulated based on EXCEL Sheets with the Ministry of HRD in the absence of which the outcome of the capacity building programmes which it had conducted is not reflected in the plans being formulated. But such programmes conducted by the NIEPA have contributed immensely to developing an understanding of both the district and state-level officers in the areas of MIS, indicators of educational development, planning methodology, and data analysis which is true for both SSA and RMSA. In each state, one person well versed engaged in planning over years and have a good understanding of SSA and RMSA parameters, use of indicators, and its implication for planning can be identified but such officers are not large in number. 

NIEPA faculty played important role at the beginning of SSA and conducted a good number of programmes on planning methodology and have also played important role in Appraisal Missions constituted by the Ministry but this exercise which was found useful by both the members of appraisal as well states discontinued for unknown reasons; instead, the concept of internal appraisal was introduced which was never found effective.  Whatever one wants to achieve can only be achieved through the active participation of teachers for which provision of in-service was made in SSA. During SSA the focus of capacity building of teachers was transferred from DIET to Block Resource Centres across the County. By and large, DIET continues to engage in B.Ed and Diploma programmes and few programmes it used to conduct were also decided at the State level (generally SCERT) which is generally not found need-based and as per the requirement of teachers but the same was an easy tool to spend a good amount of money allotted. The quality of school education was also badly reflected by the provisions of RTE, namely no detention and no exam policy at the elementary level of education which resulted in demand by the states to scrap the same which was later approved by the parliament through amendment in the Constitution. Even though SSA was extended to the Secondary level through RMSA but the same was limited only to Government schools and even aided schools were not covered. 

One of the other limitations of the programme was the issue of prioritization because of which during the initial period of SSA schools were opened where they were not viable to be opened which were later merged with other schools or a few of them were even closed down. This was also true for the construction of additional classrooms and other facilities. Despite all these limitations, significant progress was made during the SSA period but the same was focused more on to further strengthen infrastructure in schools or on input variables. At the end of SSA, the following set of data reveals the progress made and the size of the unfinished task.

Status of School Education: Year 2017-18

·       Number of Schools: 15,58,903

·       Percentage of Private Schools: 20.67%

·       Total Teachers, Grades I to XII: 92,47,361

·       Percentage of Trained Teachers : 81.39%

·       Percentage of Single-Teacher Schools (Government): 7.82%

·       Percentage of Single-Classroom Schools (Government): 3.99%

·       Percentage of Schools with Computer(s): 29.57%

·       Percentage of Schools with Functional Computer(s): 13.07%

·       Percentage of Schools with Electricity: 63.14%

·       Percentage of Schools with Internet Connection: 13.61%

·       Total I to XII Enrolment: 25,09,89,193

·       Enrolment in Grades I to V & NER: 12,23,78,400, 82.53%

·       Enrolment in Grades VI to VII & NER: 6,54,48,222, 72.62%

·       Enrolment in Grades I to VII & NER: 18,78,26,622, 85.18%

·       Enrolment in Grades IX to X & NER: 3,84,80,023, 52,14%

·       Enrolment in XI & XII & NER: 2,46,82,548, 32.60%

·       Enrolment in Grade I: 1,31,37,951 Boys & 1,19,49,359 Girls

·       Average Annual Drop-out Rate, Primary level: 3.51%

·       Average Annual Drop-out Rate, Upper Primary level: 5.02%

·       Average Annual Drop-out Rate, Elementary level: 4.03%

·       Average Annual Drop-out Rate, Secondary level: 18.51%

·       Average Annual Drop-out Rate, Primary level: 2.77%

·       Retention Rate at Primary level: 86.11%

·       Retention Rate at Elementary level: 71.06%%

·       Retention Rate at Secondary level: 57.72%

·       Transition Rate from primary to Upper Primary level: 90.78%

·       Transition Rate from Upper Primary to Secondary level: 89.23%

·       Transition Rate from Secondary Higher to Secondary level: 68.05%

·       Gender Parity Index, Primary Grades: 1.02

·       Gender Parity Index, Upper Primary Grades: 1.11

·       Gender parity Index, Secondary Grades: 1.03

·       Gender parity Index, Higher Secondary Grades: 1.02

·       Completion Rate at Secondary Level: 64.97%

 As it seems that most of the indicators have improved over a period of time but the drop-out rate remained high which would significantly influence the objective of universal school enrolment. Another important issue is the decline in enrolment across school levels over a period of time is a major area of concern that must be thoroughly examined to find out the exact causes of decline which is across the country.  Net Enrolment Ratio is 85 percent which if not further improve to significant effect, enrolment in other higher levels cannot improve. Needless to mention that enrolment in upper primary and other higher levels can only improve if enrolment in primary classes is further improved which would happen only if the efficiency of the primary level of education is improved. This is also true for Higher Education which unless received an adequate number of Higher Secondary graduates, cannot increase on its own. 

Till recently plans were being developed separately for the elementary and secondary level of education, which now under Samagra Shiksha, are supposed to be developed for the entire School education level as one entity by one planning team but as of now the same old model of developing plans based on EXCEL Sheets is still going on. The only difference is that the entire set of EXCEL Tables are divided into three parts, elementary and RTE, Teacher education, and Secondary and higher secondary levels of education which are then provided to the person-in-charge looking after these components under the aegis of Samagra Shiksha. Hardly any research studies have been undertaken to see the impact of SSA and RMSA and whether its objectives have been achieved and if not, what are the reasons for non-achievement.

It may also be of interest to know that two separate district plans were used to be developed one each for elementary under SSA and another secondary level of education under RMSA by the two different agencies. In the initial years of RMSA, even there were two separate JRMs as well as PAB to approve annual plans. Till 2011-12, even DISE was also separately been managed by the Office of SSA and RMSA with a provision of two Data Capture Formats, one online application for SEMIS and another off-line software for SSA, two Nodal officers, one each for SSA an RMSA but there was only one data entry point because of which there was a lot of duplicity of efforts being made towards achieving the goal of school education in India. Maybe because of these reasons, Samagra Shiksha was launched in 2018-19 to meet the challenges of unfinished tasks of school education in India.

Online Learning (Education) in India: Are we Ready?

On-Line Learning: Are We Ready?

A Note by Prof. Arun C Mehta, Former Professor, NIEPA, New Delhi (INDIA)

 Background

Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, since the third week of March 2020, the entire Country is under lockdown. Schools are closed down because of which students are offered online content but many are facing difficulty in getting access to contents because of lack of digital devices. In this note, an attempt has been made to assess readiness to receive online content.

Rather than students as a unit of on-line education, better to make household as a unit of online education because of the availability of the digital platform, on-line education must be provided. A few households may not have got access to any digital device but may have Radio and/or mobile phone with FM receiving facility. A few others may have got only Television Sets with or without DTH facility. Besides, few households might have got access to a smartphone with limited or no internet facility. Few others maybe only a few households, especially in the rural areas might have got access to a smartphone with 4G connectivity. Contrary to which a few households might have got access to a computer or laptop and/or smartphone with data plans and/or Radio and TV with DTH connection. Depending upon the availability of the digital platform, the household may be categorized into those who can access (i) on-line (ii) off-line or (iii) partially online content.

 

Computer & Internet Facility in India

To know more about the availability of digital mode at household, it is important to analyze NSSO 75^th Round of data on education conducted during the period July 2017 to June 2018. During this round, information on ICT in general and (i) whether the household had a computer and (ii) internet facility while for each person age 5 years and above was collected. Also, HH's ability to operate  (i) computer, (ii) use the internet, and (iii) whether the HH used the internet during the last 30 days was also collected. Unfortunately, information on the availability of all devices such as, desktop computer, laptop computer, notebook, notebook, palmtop, tablet, etc. was collected but one of the most easily accessible devices these days, namely Smart Phone, no information was collected in view of which the NSSO 2017-18 data may be considered as revealing incomplete information about the availability of devices in Households. Still, it provides useful information about the availability and use of ICT devices in both rural as well as urban areas which is briefly analyzed below:

Available information reveals that only 10.7 percent of the total households in India have got a computer and another 23.8 percent have got access to internet facilities. But the same in the rural areas is as low as 4.4 and 14.9 percent respectively as against 23.4 and 42 percent in the urban areas; thus showing a wide gap in the availability of computers and access to internet facility between rural and urban areas.

 State-specific availability of computers and access to internet facilities further reveals a wide-spread gap between states. On the one hand, Delhi reported having the computer in its 34.7 percent of the total Households and another 55.7 percent has got access to the internet as against only 4.6 and 15.4 percent households respectively in one of the largest states, namely Bihar. However, the same in the case of Odisha concerning the availability of computers is as low as 4.2 percent which has also got the lowest percentage (10 percent) of households have got access to internet facility. One can easily understand, how households in India in general and located in the rural areas would have got access to online content offered to their children during COVID19. In the rural areas, Jharkhand has got the lowest percentage of HHs having a computer (1.3 percent) as against 5.8 percent of households in Odisha having got access to internet facility.

Ability to use Computer & Internet Facility: India, Population 5 year & above

The percentage use of Computer and Internet Facilities for the population 5 years and above reveals that only 16.5 percent of people in this age group can use the computer as against 20.1 percent use internet out of which 17.6 percent used the internet during the last 30 days from the day of the survey. The percentage is as low as 9.9, 13.0 and 10.8 percent respectively in the rural areas compared to which percentage in the urban areas is much higher at 32.4, 37.1 and 33.8 percent respectively but still a majority of population both in the rural and urban areas do not know how to operate both computer and internet. Further, a wide-gap has also been observed between males and females using the computer and internet which is true for both the rural and urban areas. In rural areas, only 7 percent of females reported having the ability to operate computers as against 12.6 percent internet facility. The corresponding percentages for the ability to use the internet are 17.1 (male) and 8.5 percent (female) in the rural areas against 37.5 (male) and 26.9 (female) percentage population know computer operation and 43.5 (male) and 30.1 (female) percent know internet operation in the urban areas.

A state-wise percentage of 5+ population having the ability to operate a computer and use internet facility separately in the rural and urban areas also reveals wide-spread variation across states. Bihar with 8 percent, Jharkhand with 8.2 percent and Odisha with 8.5 percent has the lowest percentage of the population who can operate computer against 42.8 percent population in Delhi and 41.5 percent in Kerala know computer operation incidentally which is the highest amongst major states.  In the rural areas, the percentage is even further low as only 6.3 percent of 5+ population know computer operation in Bihar against 39.2 percent in Kerala.  Further, significant variation is observed in the case of male and female operating computers and internet facilities. It may also be of interest to observe that male-female variation both in the case of a population of 5+ who can operation both computers and the internet is more in urban areas than the same in the rural areas.

The above analysis of NSSO 75 Round data (2017-18) reveals that all households are not yet fully equipped to receive online content. Even if they can receive, most of them are not able to use it which is reflected in the NSSO 5+ population able to use the computer as well as the internet all which raises serious issues about the reach and use of on-line contents made available in different forms across the country. The above analysis of available data is presented because of users but are our teachers equipped to handle the task efficiently concerning the development of contents and conduct on-line classes? or they are supposed to use the contents developed and made available by other agencies?  How teachers are equipped about imparting online classes is also indirectly reflected in schools having got access to computer and internet connectivity which is latest available for the year 2017-18 in the public domain through U-DISE which is briefly analyzed below. It may also be of interest to know that of the total 9.24 million teachers who impart school education, about 20 percent of teachers are not professionally trained. Incidentally, more than 85 percent of teachers in government schools are professionally qualified but the percentage of untrained teachers in the case of private and aided schools is as high as 27.43 percent.  On the other hand, the qualification of a few teachers is below secondary (0.49 percent) and 5.83 percent Higher Secondary level but good to know that majority of teachers are graduates and postgraduates (76.16 percent). Even 1.08 percent of teachers are having M.Phil degree holders as against -.46 percent teachers having acquired a P.Hd degree. Besides, the percentage of contractual teachers is high which has increased during the recent past as many states have discontinued the recruitment of regular teachers. In addition to about 20 percent of teachers not having adequate professional qualification, about 6.74 percent of schools are single-teacher and 2.51 percent government schools, single-classroom school; how they manage schools even on normal days is a moot question forget about on-line learning during COVID days all which raises serious issues about the real implementation and impact of online learning. It is disappointed to further know that only 59.18 percent of the total 1.5 million schools (all) have regular HMs posted in schools compared to which the same in case of primary-only school is only 45.54 percent indicating no leadership[p available in case of about 54  percent primary schools in the country in 2017-18.

Schools having Electricity & Computer Facility: 2017-18

 Schools having electricity connection, computer, functional computer, and internet connection presented at the all-India level for the year 2017-18 and in a few selected states reveal that our schools are not equipped to meet challenges paused by the pandemic. Even the basic requirement such as, the electricity connection is yet to be provided to the majority of schools which is true for both the rural and urban areas. A glance at the available information  reveals that of the total 1.5 million schools engaged in school education in the country; only 63.14 percent of schools have got the electricity connection compared to a little more than 50 percent of such primary schools. It is also true that just schools having electricity connections don’t necessarily mean that schools get an uninterrupted power supply. It has also been observed in the past that schools generally do not have separate funds to pay electricity bills because of which generally observed that even schools have a connection but they do not have in real power in school. May be The Saubhagya Scheme or Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana launched by the Prime Minister will help electricity reach our remaining schools.

Percent of Schools having Electricity, Computer and Internet Connectivity in School: 2017-18

Facility	Primary Only Schools	All Schools
Electricity Connection	51.85	63.14
Computer	12.20	29.57
Internet Connection	3.54	13.61
Functional Computer	4.19	13.07
Computer Laboratory (Hr. Secondary Schools)	-	45.17

            Source: U-DISE

Another crucial indicator is the availability of computers and internet connection in schools both of which are yet to be provided in the majority of schools in India. Of the total 1.5 million schools, only about 20 percent of schools have got a computer as against 12.20 percent such primary schools. Unfortunately, the percentage of working/functional computers in schools is as low as 13.07 percent (all schools) and 4.19 percent (primary only schools. The state-wise percentage of schools with working computers further reveals that the same in Bihar is as low as 0.51 percent compared to 3 percent in Uttar Pradesh, about 5 percent in Jharkhand, 4 percent in Assam, 5 percent in Madhya Pradesh, and 3 percent in Odisha. On the other hand, schools in a few states such as Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Gujarat have got electricity connections in schools but the percentage of schools with a working computer, except Delhi (68.25 percent) is still very low. Schools with working computers need not have internet connection as only about 14 percent of schools have internet connection compared to only about 4 percent of primary schools. 

          Schools having Electricity, Computer and Internet Connectivity in Schools (All) in Selected States: 2017-18

Facility	Assam	Bihar	Jharkhand	Odisha	UP	MP	Andhra Pradesh	Delhi	Gujarat	All India
Electricity Connection	24.28	45.82	47.46	36.50	44.76	32.58	92.80	99.93	99.91	63.14
Functional Computer	3.98	0.51	4.84	3.22	3.17	5.99	24.03	68.25	38.65	13.07

Source: U-DISE

Despite the lack of digital devices to receive on-line content, both in the households and also in schools, online education in different modes was launched during COVID19 which may have further widened the inequalities across the country. Time Education in different modes, such as audio, video multi-media, etc. is being widely used across the country. Are the deprived further at the disadvantage stages? Limited information available on this aspect suggests so, see the box below. It may be recalled that the Government of India announced the nation-wide lockdown on March 23, 2020, following which both the Central as well as State Governments promptly made available online resources on different platforms (laptops, desktops, and mobile phones and also through Radio and Television Sets) most of which were already available in the public domain but altogether were made available at one place some of which are mentioned below. Despite all efforts, the limited available information all suggest that the contents are yet to reach all segments of the population (about 240 million students) because of the adequate device at household/home and those who could get access all of them couldn’t use the resources because of the one or the other reason. The government of India has also specified its e-learning priorities with Grades 9 to 12 having an enrolment of 63 million is given the top priority followed by Grades 6 to 8 (64 million enrolment) with the next priority and Grades 1 to 5 (120 million enrolment), the last priority.  But it is a fact that households having got access to devices has improved significantly since the year 2018. Pratham’s recent study reveals that about 62 percent of the total families in India now have got access to a smartphone. Besides, the proportion of boys enrolled in government schools having smartphone increased from 62.8% in 2018 to 66.4% in 2020 against an increase from 70% to 73% in the case of the household having girls during the same period all of which suggests that our households though slowly but surely gearing up to have smart devices at home which shall eventually help us in taking contents to more and more households. However, in the absence of electricity in households, charging smartphones is another hurdle in accessing contents online. Lack of digital skills amongst parents, especially in the rural areas in the case of students at primary level is another major hurdle children accessing digital content at home. In addition, children are also engaged in helping their parents in their work. More children from the general class are seen using online content than children from the socially deprived section of the society. The study conducted by the UNICEF in collaboration with the Maharashtra SCERT also reveals that only half of students of Grades I to VIII in government schools in Maharashtra have got access to online learning. The study also reveals that 72 percent of families in Maharashtra lack digital skills and only 66 families do not have access to smartphone as compared to 57 percent of students have got access to internet connectivity. All the available evidence indicates the digital divide between rural and urban areas and also between general and ST/ST students. In addition, government schools are also required to be geared up to take care of additional students who have migrated from the private schools many of which now during the pandemic have closed down or simply the parents are not in opposition to pay the fee. Efforts must be initiated to ensure that after the COVID is over, more jobs are available or salaries are restored these children are not migrated back to private schools.

 Government’s Online Learning Resources

 DIKSHA: Online platform for school education for teachers, parents and students (Grades I to     XII)

e-PATHSHALA: NCERT’s Web portal and mobile app which  has audios, videos, e- e-books and Flip Books for Grades I to XII.

NATIONAL REPOSITORY OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (NROER): A portal dedicated to quality contents.

SWAYAM: National online education platform hosting courses for both school (class IX to XII) &  Higher Education (both UG and PG) in all subjects which are made available free of cost to any learner in the country.

SWAYAM PRABHA: Has DTH TV channels transmitting educational contents for both school and higher education on 24/7 basis which is being received across the country by using DD free Dish set top box and antenna.

NISHTHA: An integrated Teacher Training Portal & Moblie Applications.

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION (UGC): College & Higher Education learning

NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY: This is a digital repository of a vast amount of academic content in different formats.

NIOS: For students enrolled with NIOS

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU): Online contents for all levels of higher education

 In view of serious loss of learning because of the pandemic, UNESCO’s session on October 22 was convened to protect and promote education at a time when education financing is at considerable risk of being left behind in the governments’ domestic budgets, stimulus packages, and international aid, the UN agency said (HT, 25^th September 2020) all which shows the situation of learning because of the pandemic is serious. However, online education has opened up a lot of opportunities for both educators/teachers and learners/students. With experience and proper policy and honest efforts may result in India march-ahead which may become an example for other countries as well.