“91.8% of India’s schools now have electricity”: Union Education Minister Pradhan

NEW DELHI:

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

on Tuesday said that the high-level committee that was formed to suggest reform of the National Testing Agency (NTA) has submitted its report, and the same has been submitted before the Supreme Court.
Addressing a press conference, Pradhan noted that 91.8% of India’s schools now have electricity.
Addressing a press conference, Pradhan said, “…For the reform of NTA, a high-level committee was formed. The committee has submitted its reports. Under the Action Taken Report, it has been submitted before the Supreme Court. I will share a few main pointers of the report with you. It will come into the public domain today…By academic 2023-24 we have more schools than we had in 2013-14. Earlier, 53% of the schools had electricity, but now 91.8% of schools have electricity.”
Pradhan further said that NCERT is planning to publish 15 crore quality and affordable books to meet the demands of students.

“In the next academic year, NCERT will publish 15 crore quality and affordable books… There will be no financial burden on students in the next academic year; rather, it will be reduced in some classes, Pradhan added.
He said that NCERT has signed an MoU with Amazon and Flipkart to sell its books at MRP on these platforms.
“As of 4th December 2024, a huge sample size of 23 lakhs, more than 87 thousand schools have been surveyed under NAS. Another survey at the district level will be conducted under NAS, which will help us understand their learning outcome and academic status,” Pradhan further added.

Notably, the NEET UG 2024 examination, held on May 5, has been embroiled in controversy following allegations of paper leaks, irregularities, and time losses during the exam.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG) was held for more than 24 lakh candidates at 4750 different Centres located in 571 Cities throughout the country including 14 Cities outside India on 05 May 2024 (Sunday). The re-examination of the NEET (UG) 2024 was conducted on 23 June 2024 for 1563 candidates who had experienced time loss during the originally scheduled examination on 05 May 2024. (ANI)