Daily News Simplified - DNS

03 JULY 21
Notes
SL. THE HINDU
TOPICS
NO. PAGE NO.

1 Solar power and rural India 06

2 4000-year-old settlement found in Odisha 04
3 Digital divide in schools 06
4 Brief bulletin 1, 4, 14
5 Scheme for the day (eNAM)
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1. UPSC Current Affairs: Solar power and rural India | Page – 06

UPSC Syllabus: GS Paper III- Indian economy

Sub Theme: Solar power | UPSC

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2. UPSC Current Affairs: 4000-year-old settlement found in Odisha I Page 04

UPSC Syllabus: Mains – GS I – Indian History

Theme: New excavations | UPSC

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3. UPSC Current Affairs: Digital divide in schools I Page 06

UPSC Syllabus: Mains – GS Paper II, III- Indian education system and digital india

Sub Theme: digital divide | UPSC

Recently, the Ministry of Education has released the Report on United Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+)
2019-20 for School Education in India.

About UDISE+
We need a robust, real time and credible information collection mechanism to objectively evaluate the present status of
school education in India. Based upon such information, specific interventions for improvement can be designed.
In this regard, the Department of Education and Literacy has designed the UDISE+ to capture all the necessary
information related to schools, teachers and student enrolment.

Salient Features of UDISE+ 2019-20

Gross Enrolment of Students:
Gross Enrolment ratio (GER): GER is the ratio of children enrolled in a particular class (regardless of the age) to the
eligible population in the age group for that class. For example, to
calculate the GER in the Primary School (age group 6-10 years), we use the below formula:
Number of children (regardless of age) enrolled in Primary Schools / Number of the children in the age-group 6-10 years
If the GER is more than 100, it indicates that many older students, who probably missed out on the opportunity to study
at that age, are joining school to get an education now.

The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in primary schools was more than 109% in 2012-13, which has come down to about
103.7% in 2019-20.
The GER for upper primary in 2019- 20 was 89%. It was 84% in 2012-13.
The GER for secondary has reached 78% in 2019-20, which is an improvement of nearly 10 percentage points from 2012-
13 (GER secondary was 69% in 2012-13).

Gender Parity Index (GPI): The Gender Parity Index (GPI) of GER shows whether the representation of females in school
education is in line with representation of girls in population of corresponding age group. GPI value 1 or more shows that
the GPI is favourable to the girls, while GPI of less than 1 shows relative under representation of girls in that specific level
of school education.
As seen below at present, the GPI is 1 or more at all levels of school education.
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Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR): A reduction in the PTR indicates that one teacher has to teach less number of children,
resulting in improvement in quality of teaching.

The PTR at all levels of education has improved substantially during 2012- 13 to 2019-20.

School Infrastructure:

As can be seen from above, there has been improvement in the infrastructure at the school level in terms of Electricity,
Toilet, Drinking water, Library etc. However, the schools fare poorly in terms of access to computer (40%) and Internet
(20%). This highlights the growing digital divide in India.

Steps to reduce Digital Divide in School Education

Improving access: The Government has already taken a number of initiatives to improve digital infrastructure such as
National Digital Communication Policy (Broadband for all), National Broadband Mission, Digital India Scheme, BharatNet,
PM-WANI etc. These initiatives must be expedited and completed at the earliest.
We need to ensure Universal broadband connectivity, deploy Public Wi-fi hotspots in rural areas, ensure availability of
computers etc.
Improving Digital Access and Literacy: The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) should focus
on introducing digital literacy at the primary school level in all government schools for basic content and in higher classes
and colleges for advanced content.
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4. UPSC Current Affairs: Brief bulletin I Page 01, 04, 14

UPSC Syllabus: Mains and Prelims: various topics

Sub Theme: economy updates | UPSC

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4. UPSC Current Affairs: Scheme of the day (eNAM)

UPSC Syllabus: Mains and Prelims: Indian agriculture

Sub Theme: agriculture marketing | UPSC

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