Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan will launch the PM e-VIDYA DTH Channel No. 31 for Indian Sign Language (ISL) here tomorrow.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary will also grace the event that will witness participation of Hearing Impaired (HI) children, HI achievers, special educators, ISL certified interpreters and organisations working for mainstreaming the Hearing-Impaired community.

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This critical initiative supports the objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which recommends the promotion of Indian Sign Language to foster a more inclusive educational environment. Para 4.22 of NEP states that ‘Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardised across the country and national and state curriculum materials developed for use by students with hearing impairment. Local sign languages will be respected and taught as well, where possible and relevant.

An exclusive PM e-Vidya channel devoted to the promotion of Indian Sign Language has been conceptualised to promote ISL as a language as well as a school subject so that the larger population has access to learning the language.

The Channel will disseminate learning content for schoolchildren (Central & State Curriculum), teachers, teacher educators, and other stakeholders in the area of career guidance, skill training, mental health, class-wise curricular content, communication skills, as well as promotion of Sign Language as a language subject, just like verbal languages like Hindi, English, etc. for all.