PARLIAMENT LIBRARY AND REFERENCE, RESEARCH,

DOCUMENTATION AND INFORMATION SERVICE (LARRDIS)

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RESEARCH AND INFORMATION DIVISION

RESEARCH NOTE
LARRDIS NO. 1/2022/E&SA
FEBRUARY 2022
IMPACT OF COVID - 19 ON EDUCATION

AT A GLANCE

 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced closure of schools, our children,

particularly in the rural areas, and those from Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, and other weaker sections, have lost almost 2 years of
formal education.

 The impact of pandemic has resulted in reduction of enrolment and dropout rates during pandemic years,
2020 and 2021.

 There has been also digital divide among children specially belonging to the lower income groups, do not
have smart phones, tablets, desktop computers/laptops even television and radio to connect
digitally/electronically.

 The government and other organizations in the field rose to the occasion and took various steps/measures
to broaden the outreach of online/digital education and remote learning and ensure its accessibility to all
students in all strata of society.

 The government has initiated several programmes like PMeVidya, DIKSHA, NIPUN Bharat, Samagra
Sikhsa, National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) , SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active–
Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) , MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) etc.

 The Union Budget has recently made provision for digital education like setting up of a Digital
University, 750 virtual labs, 75 skilling e-labs, and expansion for PMeVidya etc.

The Research Note is intended to serve only as a background aid to the members of the
Parliament. It is for restricted circulation and not for publication in any form.
Introduction

COVID-19 pandemic affected educational systems world-wide leading to closure of schools,

colleges and Universities. Indian education system also saw the largest disruption in history
affecting nearly 32 crore students population enrolled in various schools/colleges and
Universities. The sudden closure left very little time for the system to prepare a strategy and
transition to distance learning. The crisis exacerbated pre-existing education disparities by
reducing the opportunities for many of the most vulnerable children, youth and adults. It also
posed challenges for schools/colleges/Universities to shift to digital mode of teaching with
technological tools due to interruption of face to face (one-on-one) conventional teaching mode.
Neither the teachers nor the students got enough time to prepare themselves for the new online
education system, which had to be adopted hastily in this unique situation to continue the stream
of education unabated. Despite of a few initial teething problems, the government and other
organizations in the field rose to the occasion and took various steps/measures to broaden the
outreach of online/digital education and remote learning and ensure its accessibility to all
students in all strata of society1.

Impact of Covid on Education

 School Drop-out
The pandemic has had a significant impact on the education system affecting lakhs of schools and
colleges across India. Since the data from Ministry of Education is only available up to 2019-20, the
impact of pandemic on enrolment and dropout rates during pandemic years, 2020 and 2021, could not be
assessed through comprehensive official data.2

ASER found that despite the pandemic, enrolment in age cohort of 15-16 years continued to improve
as number of not enrolled children in this age group declined from 12.1 percent in 2018 to 6.6 percent in
2021. However, ASER (Rural) report also found that during pandemic, children (age 6-14 years) ‘not
currently enrolled in schools’ increased from 2.5 percent in 2018 to 4.6 percent in 2021. The enrolment
decline was relatively large among the younger age group (age 7-10 year); decline of enrolment for
younger boys was higher than girls. The drop in enrolment happened in 2020, although it has remained
1
Rajya Sabha, 328th Report, DRSC on Education, Women, Children, Youth And Sports, 6 August 2021
2
Economic Survey 2022 ([Link]
 stable in 2021.3

Table : Children enrolled in schools by age group and school type in Rural areas (in percent)

In order to mitigate the impact of challenges thrown by the COVID-19 pandemic for migrant
children and for preventing drop outs, lower enrolments and loss of learning, the government
issued guidelines for identification, smooth admission process and continued education of
migrant children. To ensure that children have access to education with quality and equity and to
minimize the impact of the pandemic on school education in the country, the government has
prepared and issued detailed guidelines on the steps to be taken by the States and UTs. The
guidelines, among others, include identification of out of school children from age 6-18 years,
enrolment drives and awareness generation, student support while schools are closed, continued
Education for children with Special Needs (CWSN), student support on school reopening and
Teacher capacity building.

3
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021,
 Digital Divide

All parts of the country are not equipped to make digital education reach to all corners and
cover all groups of the people. Most of rural, remote areas lack these facilities indicating a huge
digital divide. In other words, about 70 per cent of the country does not have access to internet
connectivity and available quality of connectivity is poor. Many households, especially
belonging to the lower income groups, do not have smart phones, tablets, desktop
computers/laptops even television and radio to connect digitally/electronically. This effectively
means that poor and marginal people in rural areas, labourers, migrant workers and women
have been deprived of the benefits of digital education. The government has made an effort was
made to reach out to students through television and radio and to supply digital devices to
students belonging to economically weaker sections in some States.

Government Measures
Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools, Colleges
and University are under the domain of respective State and UT Governments. During COVID-
19 Pandemic, the Government held continuous consultations with the States and UTs at various
levels to assess the various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT) has conducted a survey in the month of July, 2020 with the
help of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and Central
Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to understand the scenario of Online Learning of school
students in COVID-19 pandemic situation. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) was
conducted on 12.11.2021 in 717 districts of the country to assess learning levels of sampled
children of grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. To ensure that children have access to education with quality
and equity and to minimize the impact of the pandemic on education in the country, the
government has initiated following programmes:

 SAMAGRA SHIKSHA : It has been aligned with the National Education

Policy (NEP) 2020 in order to ensure inclusive and equitable, quality and holistic school
education. The major interventions, across all levels of school education, proposed under
the scheme are: (i) Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention;
 (ii) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, (iii) Gender and Equity; (iv) Inclusive Education;
(v) Quality and Innovation; (vi) Financial support for Teacher Salary; (vii) Digital
initiatives; (viii) RTE Entitlements including uniforms, textbooks etc.; (ix) Support for
ECCE; (x) Vocational Education; (xi) Sports and Physical Education; (xii) Strengthening of
Teacher Education and Training;(xiii) Monitoring; (xiv) Programme Management; and (xv)
National Component. Samagra Shiksha also has a clear focus on bridging and eliminating
gender differences in enrolment, retention and quality of learning.

 NIPUN BHARAT: A National Mission on Foundational Literacy and

Numeracy called “National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and
Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat)” has been launched by the Ministry of Education (MoE) on 5th
July 2021under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha which is an
integrated scheme of school education covering from Pre-School to Senior Secondary level.
The National Mission lays down priorities and actionable agendas for States/UTs to achieve
the goal of proficiency in foundational literacy and numeracy for every child by grade 3.
under the aegis of the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha which is an
integrated scheme of school education covering from Pre-School to Senior Secondary level.

 National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR): The blueprint of NDEAR, a

digital infrastructure for Education, was launched on 29th July, 2021. It will be set up within the
context of a Digital-First Mindset where the Digital Architecture will not only support teaching and
learning activities but also educational planning, governance administrative activities of the Centre
and the States Union Territories. It will provide diverse education eco-system architecture for
development of digital infrastructure, a federated but inter-operable system that will ensure
autonomy of all stakeholders, especially States and UTs.

 PRABANDH portal: The government has shared a comprehensive Covid

Action plan with States/UTs and other stakeholders for mitigating the loss of learning. The
government has also developed an online module for compiling the data of Out of School
children identified by each State/UT and their mapping with Special Training Centres
(STC) on the PRABANDH Portal ([Link] The portal requires the
concerned State/UT to validate the child wise information of the identified OOSC and STC
 uploaded by the concerned Block Resource Centre of the State for monitoring the progress
of mainstreaming of OOSC. Also, Bridge Course Modules have been developed for
bridging the learning gaps of Out of School Children studying in Special Training Centers
(STC) under the provision of RTE Act, 2009.

PM eVIDYA
A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated which unifies all efforts related
to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative includes,
where work is in progress:

● DIKSHA the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education
in states/UTs: and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform)

● One earmarked Swayam Prabha TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)

● Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- Shiksha Vani

● Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible
Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube

 NISHTHA : In view of the COVID-19 challenges and in order to provide continuous

professional development opportunities to the teachers at the elementary level, the governent
launched the NISHTHA online training programme using DIKSHA platform in October 2020.
NISHTHA online for elementary level covered 18 modules in 11 languages, including use of
ICT in teaching-learning. Around 24 lakh teachers completed NISHTHA online training at
elementary level by June, 2021. Further, NISHTHA online training has also been initiated for
secondary teachers and teachers teaching at foundational level.

 Digital/Online education/learning: In order to promote the online education, UGC has

notified necessary regulation, which facilitates the Universities to offer full-fledged Online
Program. Further, the current provisions of 20 per cent Online courses in a programme, as per
provisions of UGC SWAYAM and ODL Regulations, enhanced up to maximum 40 per cent for
implementation considering “National interest during COVID-19” and also to ensure effective
 utilization of e-resources. The Ministry of Education has also launched Annual Refresher
Programme in Teaching (ARPIT), a major and unique initiative of online professional
development of 1 higher education faculty using the MOOCs platform SWAYAM. Various
digital initiatives are being undertaken by Ministry of education viz. SWAYAM, SWAYAM
Prabha, National Digital Library (NDL), Virtual Lab, e-Yantra, FOSSEE (Free Open-Source
Software for Education) etc to ensure quality education to the students. Quality Online courses
are provided through SWAYAM which is an indigenously developed MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Course) platform.4

Provision for Digital E-Learning in Union Budget 2022-235

 ‘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.

 High-quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for

delivery via internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through Digital Teachers.

 In vocational courses, to promote crucial critical thinking skills, to

give space for creativity, 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75
skilling e-labs for simulated learning environment, will be set-up in 2022-23.

 A Digital University will be established to provide access to students

across the country for world-class quality universal education with
personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made
available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.

4
Lok Sabha Unstarred Question no. 1190 dated 06.12.2021
5
Union Budget 2022-23, Ministry of Finance, GOI