To counter the bad effects of pandemics, the Ministry of Education launched a comprehensive initiative called PMeVidya which aims to unify all digital/online/on-air education efforts to enable multi-mode access to education. The initiative was launched under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The RTE Act mandates the government to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child of the age 6 to 14 years in a neighborhood school. This is one of the many steps taken by the government for providing children remote access to education.
The initiative includes all forms of digital modes to provide wide access – DIKSHA (online), SWAYAM (online), SWAYAM PRABHA (TV), other TV Channels including the use of Doordarshan and AIR networks. Further, PRAGYATA guidelines were issued to states/UTs to facilitate continued education through various modes.
The guidelines inter-alia include situations where internet connectivity is not available or available with very little bandwidth, these resources are shared through various platforms like television, radio, etc that do not depend on the internet. An alternate academic calendar has been prepared for learning solutions for grades 1 to 12 for children with and without devices. Besides these, community radio, worksheets & textbooks supplied to the residence of learners, home visits by teachers, community classes, toll-free numbers, SMS-based requests for audio content, localized radio content for edutainment, etc have been used.