Budget 2022: Nirmala Sitharaman announces a digital university

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 1

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday highlighted the need for quick adoption of digital learning and the need to push for regional languages in higher education institutions as well as schools.  

The Finance Minister said a Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood, the DESH-Stack e-portal, will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through online training.  

Presenting the Budget 2022-23, Sitharamanannounced a digital university to provide access to world-class quality universal education to students across the country with a personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. 

The university will be built on a networked hub-and-spoke model, with the hub building cutting-edge ICT expertise.

“A digital university will be established to provide access to tools across the country for world-class universal education, with personalised learning experience at their doorstep.

“This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) formats. The university will be built on a networked hub and spoke model,” Sitharaman said.

She added that the best universities in India will collaborate on the project.

Sitharaman said that because of the closure of schools, children, particularly those in the rural areas and those from weaker sections, had lost almost two years of formal education.

“We recognise the need to provide supplementary education and build a resilient mechanism for education delivery,” Sitharaman said. “One class, one TV channel of the PM E-Vidya will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will allow states to provide education to students of Classes 1-12 in regional languages.”

“High-quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for delivery via internet, mobile phones, and television,” the FM added.

Referring to the Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood, she said the portal aims to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through online training. It will also provide application program interface (API)-based trusted skill credentials, payment, and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

A competitive mechanism for the development of quality e-content by the teachers will be set up to empower and equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes.

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