While answering a question asked by Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on August 9, the Union Ministry of Education informed Rajya Sabha that 24.2 per cent of the government schools had internet connection in the country in 2021-2022.
“An advisory has been issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India to all the States and UTs to enter into an MoU/ Agreement with BSNL and provide FTTH [Fibre to the Home] Internet connection to all the Government Schools which have computing devices,” Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Education Minister stated in a written reply yesterday, on August 9.
As per an annexure included in the reply, Kerala and Gujarat with 94.6 per cent and 94.2 per cent of internet coverage respectively.
Amongst states that had the lowest coverage of internet connectivity at government-run schools, Bihar reported 5.9 per cent of connectivity, Mizoram had 6.0 per cent, and Odisha had 8.1 per cent of schools covered with internet.
Meanwhile, mentioning measures that could help the state governments to cover the internet charges, the Union Education Ministry stated that for ICT [information and communications technology] labs and smart classrooms, internet charges can be met from the recurring charges being released under Samagra Shiksha.
The Samagra Shiksha scheme is an integrated scheme of the Union government for school education covering a range of requirements from pre-school to class XII.
Also, the ministry mentioned that for Schools in which ICT and Smart classrooms are not sanctioned under Samagra Shiksha and which have computing devices, internet charges can be met from the Management monitoring Evaluation and Research (MMER) funds being released under Samagra Shiksha or can be met from any other State/UT government funds.
