Whatever may be the fate of the countrywide coronavirus lockdown, whether extended or ending on April 14, India’s education institutions are expected to remain closed till June end.
Sources in the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) said educational institutions will remain under the “compulsory lockdown” at least till June-end as a precautionary step to stem the Covid spread.
“Tens of thousands of children go to schools every day. We need to take precaution,” he said, adding, a committee has already been formed to discuss how to adjust academic session of higher learning.
Against this background, the HRD Ministry on Friday sought suggestions from educationists as to how to improve upon and make reliable online system of education that can facilitate students to continue with their session indoors during the corona scare.
Ideally the norm is to have 210/220 working days of secondary schools every year. That is being worked out. We are also looking into how to prepare a calendar giving much less gap between test and to March 2021 annual examination. In any case, most of the schools have begun their online platforms and imparting education as per the new academic session,” explained a senior HRD Ministry official.
While the HRD has already held a couple of meeting in this regard, the final decision will be taken after all the stakeholders — CBSE, ICSE, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, NCERT and State education boards sit across the board.
“While the HRD Ministry has already constituted a UGC-led committee to discuss on the academic session of higher learning, the academic session of the schools will be decided in due course,” he said.
“Several States are of the opinion that they will not open the schools given the pandemic scare across the country. A report submitted to “concerned authorities” has also advised that in the pyramid structure to open the various sectors post lockdown, schools and educational institutions are at the bottom sphere,” Ministry sources said.
HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has launched a week long ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ 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 the HRD Ministry to overcome constraints of online education while promoting the available digital education platforms.
The students and teachers are the main target audience in sharing ideas and the Minister hopes that the stakeholders will participate in this campaign to improve the existing online education methods.
He said that students who are currently studying in schools or higher educational institutions are the ones engaging with the existing digital platforms offering various courses etc on a daily basis.
“They can share what is lacking in the existing online platforms and how we can make them more engaging,” Pokhriyal said.
He further said the educators across the country can also come forward to contribute with their expertise and experience in the field of education.
“A conversation can be initiated with them, asking them that what do they think an ideal online education ecosystem should look like? Or what are the limitations of the current online education scenario of India? What challenges they face in traditional classrooms that can be addressed through online education,” urged the HRD Minister.