The Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ launched Vidya Daan 2.0 programme for inviting e-learning content contributions. 

The programme has been launched due to the increasing requirement for e-learning content for students (both school and higher education) especially in the  backdrop of the situation arising out of COVID-19 and also due to the urgent need to integrate digital education with schooling to augment learning.

With the unprecedented crisis due to the spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 impacting upon school and higher education in many different ways, it is the right time and opportunity for all states/UTs to strengthen their e-learning content for school and higher education on DIKSHA and leverage its potential use by students and teachers, the ministry said. 

What is Vidya Daan programme?

Vidya Daan, an initiative of CBSE, is a programme based on donation of e-content by teachers to synergise countrywide efforts on content development for providing schools and teachers in urban and rural areas with good quality e-content that can be used anytime, anywhere at no cost. 

The aim of this programme is to empower each school, teacher and student by providing an ease of learning. Teachers will get a space to share their best practices and e-content with the entire nation.

Vidya Daan was launched on September 12, 2019 by the HRD minister

Several schools in India have participated in the programme to contribute curriculum linked digital content for multiple resources required by the teacher.

Contributing to Vidya Daan

Pokhriyal said that Vidya Daan is conceptualised as a common national programme for individuals and organisations across the country to donate/contribute e-learning resources for both school and higher education to ensure continuity of quality learning.

The minister said that the content will be used on the DIKSHA app to help millions of children across the country to continue their learning anytime and anywhere.

He said that Vidya Daan has a content contribution tool that provides a structured interface for the contributors to register and contribute different types of content (such as explanation videos, presentations, competency-based items, quizzes, etc), for any grade (from grade 1 to 12), for any subject as specified by the states/UTs.

Contributions can be made by educationists, subject experts, schools, colleges, universities, institutes, government and non-government organisations, individuals, etc. 

Pokhriyal explained that it will be a matter of pride and national recognition for all those whose contributions will be approved and accepted to be included in the DIKSHA e-learning content. There is provision for approval of contributors, curation of content before uploading to the final and required taxonomy, and picking up content from any of the  contributions made to different states/UTs for the use of any other state/UT.

States/UTs can have their own unique taxonomy for inviting contributions. The minister added that programme shall soon be inviting contributions for teacher training material.

What is DIKSHA?

The DIKSHA of the HRD ministry has been operating since September 2017 with more than 30 states/UTs leveraging the platform for augmenting teaching and learning processes. 

Realising the scale and potential of DIKSHA platform, multiple institutions, organisations and individuals over the years have expressed their interest in contributing digital resources.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store