- The guidelines, called “Pragyata”, have been framed by the ministry, following concerns raised by parents about schools conducting online classes like regular school.
- The HRD Ministry has recommended that the duration for online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes.
- For classes 1 to 8, the HRD Ministry has recommended two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each.
- Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16.
The HRD Ministry on Tuesday announced guidelines for online classes by schools and recommended a cap on the duration and the number of sessions in a day for students.
The guidelines, called “Pragyata”, have been framed by the ministry, following concerns raised by parents about schools conducting online classes like regular schools. Parents complained that children's screen time increased massively after the COVID-19 pandemic mandated a shift from classroom teaching to online learning as schools continue to remain shut for over four months.
Here are some of the recommendations —
- The HRD Ministry has recommended that the duration for online classes for pre-primary students should not be for more than 30 minutes.
- For classes 1 to 8, the HRD Ministry has recommended two online sessions of up to 45 minutes each.
- For classes 9 to 12, four sessions of 30-45 minutes duration have been recommended.
- All the schools are recommended to adopt/adapt the alternative academic calendar of NCERT at http://ncert.nic.in/aac.html for classes 1 to 12.
- It also emphasised on the need to unify all efforts related to digital or on-air education, benefitting school children across the country.
- Schools should use Instant Messaging/Chat groups/emails to get in touch with parents and share important information, resources, suggestions and follow up activities.
- HRD Ministry also suggested schools to post a weekly announcement and give a brief about the topics to be covered in the coming week.
- The Ministry also recommended that teachers should share e-content with students and parents and guide them how to use those contents using available gadgets at home.
- Schools should provide time to time feedback on the responses and performance of students in the assigned tasks.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has led to closure of schools and has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said.
He further added, “schools will not only have to remodel and reimagine the way teaching and learning have happened so far, but will also need to introduce a suitable method of delivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling at school.”
Universities and schools across the country have been shut since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shut down as part of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
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