Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday asked the Universities and other educational institutions to harness the power of technology to ensure continuity of academic calendar during the lock-down period.
Naidu interacted with the Vice Chancellors through a video conference during which he urged the institutions to reach out to students by utilizing technological tools to ensure interactive learning.
Those who participated in the conference were Vice Chancellors of Delhi, Puducherry, Punjab, Makhanlal Chaturvedi Universities and Director of Indian Institute of Public Administration.
Naidu appreciated the universities for taking adequate steps to ensure that the teaching-learning process was not hindered during the lock down. He said, online courses would supplement face-to-face learning. He also emphasized the need for universities and educational institutions to take measures to safeguard the health of students residing in hostels.
The Vice President urged them to ensure strict adherence to social distancing and isolation instructions given by the Government and health experts.
He advised the students to follow healthy dietary habits, do regular physical exercise and spend time with nature. He also suggested the students to take part in social service activities taken up by NGOs in their respective areas.
On the other hand HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank too conducted a meeting with top HRD officials including HRD Secretary Amit Khare.
The meeting was to review the decisions and initiatives taken to develop an online education ecosystem in the country.
Khare informed HRD Minister that more than 3700 suggestions from educationists and stakeholders have been received for ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign in just three days of its launch.
"The campaign is gaining popularity among social media users and the HRD Ministry has received more than 3700 suggestions for ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign in just 3 days on Twitter and e-mail. People are appreciating this initiative and also thanking the Ministry for promoting the online education system.
The narrative around the campaign has picked on social media in a big way so much that it was found trending in top ten on twitter today.
‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign is a one week long campaign for Crowd sourcing of Ideas for Improving Online Education ecosystem of India . The campaign aims to invite all the best brains in India to share suggestions/solutions directly with HRD Ministry to overcome constraints of online education while promoting the available digital education platforms," a HRD Ministry statement said.