UPSC Articles
Social inequity in online education
Part of: GS Prelims and Mains II – Welfare Schemes; Govt schemes and initiatives
In news:
- We recently read about 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report released by UNESCO
- The report had highlighted that COVID-19 pandemic has increased inequalities in education systems.
- Therefore, to tackle social inequity in online education the Centre has proposed long-term measures to bridge the divide.
Measures proposed by the Centre
- It plans to distribute laptops or tablets to 40% of all college and university students over the next five years. (at a total cost of Rs. 60,900 crore)
- The Centre and States are to share the cost of making devices available, in a 60:40 ratio.
- The Centre aims to equip all government schools with information and communication technology (ICT).
- For the 3.1 lakh government schools above upper primary level, Centre has proposed a budget of Rs. 55,840 crore to equip them with ICT facilities.
- For college and university students, the Human Resource Development Ministry proposed to spend Rs. 2,306 crore on developing and translating digital course content and resources over the next five years.
