CIET (NCERT) wins UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize

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UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: International Relations- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Use of ICT under a comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA by the Department of School education, Ministry of Education, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic wins UNESCO’s recognition- King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize.
The UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education for the year 2021 was given to Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET).
- CIET is a constituent unit of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under Department of School Education and Literacy (DOSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE).

Background: UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize was established in 2005 with the support of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
About: UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa award “recognizes innovative approaches in leveraging new technologies to expand educational and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
- This is in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Goal 4 on Education.
Mandate: UNESCO’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize rewards individuals and organizations that are implementing outstanding projects and promoting the creative use of technologies to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance in the digital age.
Award Prize: An international Jury selects two best projects annually. Each prize winner receives US$ 25,000, a medal and a diploma during a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris”, which this year will be held on 24th June, 2022.

PM eVIDYA has been initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaanby the Ministry of Education on 17th May, 2020.
PM eVIDYA unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access for imparting education by using technology to minimise learning losses.

The CIET was proactive in taking learning to the doorsteps of the children through the extensive, resilient, ethical, and coherent use of 12 PM eVidya DTH TV channels and nearly 397 radio stations, including community radio stations under PM eVidya program.
These efforts were especially helpful in pandemic situations, when schools were closed, in reaching out to students.
- These efforts helped in arresting the learning hiatus to a large extent.