HRD-Ministry : Empowering Students & Strengthening Education System with Quality Efforts

HRDMinistry : 1 Year "Good Governance" , released by Smt Smriti Irani

Union HRD Minister Smt Smriti Irani, while speaking at the edNEXT, National Conference on ICT in School Education at New Delhi, said that the use of ICT will strengthen school education system. She also said that education ministers of certain States were working to reduce the burden of exams on students.

The event showcased various ICT based initiatives in school education. During the conference, e-Pathshala, Saaransh and National Programme on School Standards and Evaluation Framework (Shala Siddhi) were launched. These are either web portals or mobile phone applications.

Further, Shala Darpan, MDM-IVRS and Ekta project from Alwar were also showcased. Students at the event shared their excitement about these apps, which promise to make learning more interesting, school bags lighter and books available on the go.

Epathshala- Learning on the go. Access digital textbooks of NCERT for all classes on your mobile or computer

E-Pathshala, a web portal that hosts educational resources for students, teachers, parents, researchers and educators, is available through a specially developed mobile app interface on Android, iOS and Windows platforms for wider access. It contains textbooks and other e-books as E-Pub 3.0 and Flip-books in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Shaala Siddhi is a comprehensive instrument for school evaluation, which enables the schools to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner to facilitate them to make professional judgement for continuous improvement. The web portal of the framework will help all schools assess themselves; the results can be seen by all, enabling them to provide feedback. The initiative has already been successfully piloted in four districts of Tamil Nadu.

Shaala Darpan - enhances school's overall academic delivery systems.

Saransh is a tool that allows schools to identify areas of improvement in students, teachers and curricula to facilitate and implement change. The platform has been available for classes 9^th to 12^th; it has been providing a comprehensive overview of the 10^th standard performance since 2007 and 12^th standard performance since 2009. Presently, results of CBSE are available on the portal as well as the app.

Saransh - a tool for comprehensive self-review and analysis for CBSE affiliated schools

The event also showcased other ICT initiatives like the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system to monitor daily implementation of the mid-day meal scheme and Shaala Darpan, an integrated platform to address all academic and administrative requirements of schools, teachers, parents and students.

Earlier, the minister appreciated the efforts put in by all the State education ministers in achieving 100% result in constructing separate toilets for boys and girls in schools during the past one year. This, she said, was the outcome of the appeal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August last year. The HRD minister also felicitated the State education ministers for their efforts in fulfilling the prime minister’s vision of having toilets in every government school under the “Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya” campaign.

Swachh Vidyalaya: An Incredible team effort, effective leadership and use of technology has made the dream of Swachh Vidyalaya a reality in India.

The minister also elaborated upon the paradigm shift where the stakeholders were asked to participate in the use of mobile applications and find out the utility of these apps. Further, keeping in view the need to recognize the ICT initiatives, the HRD minister made a clarion call to every citizen to come forward and contribute towards technological innovation for the benefit of school education. She called upon the States to look into the issue of the nutritional value of mid-day meals and prepare their own menu for it, keeping in mind the local climate and conditions.

Smt Smriti Irani at UNESCO for 38th session of General Conference of UNESCO

• "Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan" has been announced to imbibe scientific temper among students
• Madan Mohan Malviya Mission for Teachers Training has been launched to empower & increase capacity of teachers
• SWAYAM : (Study Web of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) & MOOCs can create speed, scale & efficiency in teaching
• “Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat” focuses on ensuring that learning levels of Class I and II students in reading, writing language comprehension and numeracy is at par with the world. Every school will provide teaching-learning for 200 days in a year with 800 instructional hours
• DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAY KAUSHAL KENDRA: Run courses from certificate to PG degree and research level in the field of Skill Development and Vocational Education. These Centers will also coordinate between the Higher Education system and Industry to work as Center of Excellence for Skill Development in specialized areas
• YUKTI: Aims at skill development and up-gradation of design and technologies enhancing the economic prospects of those engaged in traditional arts and crafts
• ISHAN VIKAS: Comprehensive plan to expose selected students from the Northeast to opportunities in the IITs, NITs and IISERs during their vacation period. School Children, will be taken on a fully-funded 10 day visit to any one reputed higher education institution in the country to participate in a well-designed awareness programme. 
• ISHAN UDAY SCHOLARSHIP: Scheme focuses on providing equal opportunities to students from the North Eastern Region to pursue higher education at undergraduate colleges and universities across the country. 
• SAKSHAM: Scheme of AICTE aims at providing encouragement and support to differently-abled children to pursue a technical education. This scholarship enables meritorious students to pursue a technical education at AICTE approved institutions, helping them meet their college aspirations. 
• UDAAN: Mentoring and scholarship initiative of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to enable meritorious girl students to transit from school into technical education. 
• National e-Library of India: Easy access to e-content and e-books for schools, colleges and researchers. The initiatives will ensure that content is universally available for all learners.