Due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and the subsequent disruption of academic activities, the Ministry of Human Resource Development said it requires an amount of Rs 2,306.4 crore for the development of online courses/ programmes over five years.

During its presentation to the 15th finance commission on Monday, June 29, 2020, about the education sector, MHRD also presented a requirement of Rs 55,840 crore for providing ICT facilities to 3.10 lakh government schools. The government also proposed providing digital devices to 40 percent higher education students in the next five years.

Apart from the additional grant required to enable the 3.10 lakh government schools with ICT, the ministry also spelt out the cost requirement for safety in schools as per Covid-19 guidelines, which includes of Rs 1,000 per teacher, Rs 1,500 per school for media and community mobilisation and safe school operational grants of Rs 25,000 per school of upto 100 students to Rs 1 lakh per school with 1,000 or more students.

MHRD in its presentation before the commission projected a requirement of Rs 10.37 lakh crore for the education sector that includes Rs 4 lakh crore for higher education and Rs 6.37 lakh crore for school education and literacy over the next five years.

Earlier, the Fifteenth Finance Commission met officials from the MHRD to discuss the impact of the new tools of pedagogy, including online classes and the use of other technology for education, the need for which has arisen out of the ongoing pandemic. The meeting was attended by Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Minister of State for HRD Sanjay Dhotre and other senior officials.

Source: Times of India

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