Online and Offline learning in Schools : Union Education Minister chairs meeting with School Education Secretaries of all States & UTs
Ministry of Education
Union Education Minister chairs meeting with School Education Secretaries of all States & UTs Biggest meeting on school education during pandemic
Government committed to ensure safety and academic welfare of students : Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Ad-hoc grants of Rs 5228 crore released to the states and UTs under Samagra Shiksha
2500 crore will be released soon to ensure continuity of various educational initiatives
State commended for their work; Centre assures full support
प्रविष्टि तिथि: 17 MAY 2021 6:32PM by PIB Delhi
Shri Pokhriyal noted all the problems and suggestions made by the States. The States also appreciated the efforts made by the Ministry of Education providing all possible help to States to ensure academic welfare of students. The Union Minister thanked all the States for their commendable work in the field education and assured them that the Ministry will extend its full support in this difficult time and together we will fight this problem.
Acknowledging that the Government has adopted new and innovative methods in Indian education system to address the challenges arising due to covid pandemic, MoS Shri Sanjay Dhotre stressed upon exploring ways to provide hybrid education comprising of both offline and online teaching methods. For this we would need new learning methodologies, quality learning content and evaluation assessment model, he added. He emphasised that scientific temperament of students will play a deciding role in post covid world therefore education system of our country should focus on developing critical thinking ability, logical reasoning ability and scientific temper among students. He called upon everyone to work together as a team in furthering the spirit of NEP 2020 and effectively implementing it to achieve the desired goals.
A comprehensive COVID Response document has been issued by the Department on 4th May, 2021 and it delineates detailed action plan with corresponding timelines for all Stakeholders involved on Access, Retention, Continuous Learning, Capacity Building and Stakeholder engagement.
The major areas identified for intervention are: Identifying and mainstreaming of Out of School Children and ensuring sustained Enrolment, Retention and Transition; Academic learning & cognitive development of students; Capacity building- with specific focus on blended and home-based learning including student assessments and data use; Nutritional, socio-emotional support; Digital education and monitoring, tracking and remediation.
Further, the following components of Samagra Shiksha have been built into special and focused interventions in view of the present pandemic situation:
- Learning enhancement/enriching programme to provide supplementary material to children
- Library grant for ensuring availability of reading material to students
- Special Training for Out of school children and Children With Special Needs.
- Support for out of school children of age group 16 to 19 years through NIOS/State open schools.
- SMC training to be utilized for ensuring community participation, parental support
- Teaching learning Material at ECCE and primary grade
- Setting-up a help desk at Panchayat level and creating awareness through use of mass media. It can also be used for conducting online learning and content dissemination over electronic media.
- Child tracking funds may be utilized for preparing student registry
- Special Grants to schools for sanitization and hygiene
- Teachers grants for awareness on safety and security in online mode and for enabling them to use online means of education.
- Grants for online content development and dissemination.
- Grants for teachers for accessing NISHTHA training over DIKSHA platform.
- Composite school grants to ensure continuity of learning and at least 10% of it to be used for Water, sanitation and hygiene in schools.
The Department has started conducting the meetings of the Project Approval Board for approval of Annual Work Plan and Budgets of the states under Samagra Shiksha in the virtual mode, so that the states and UTs can get timely approvals for implementation of the above interventions.
Further, ad-hoc grants to the tune of Rs 5228 crore have already been released to the states under Samagra Shiksha and an amount of Rs 2500 crore will be released soon to ensure continuity of various educational initiatives by the states and UTs.
All states and UTs have shared their strategy for continuing the learning process during the pandemic. It was reported that most of the children have received the textbooks and apart from this, various supplementary graded material has also been prepared by the states. Haryana and Gujarat shared the details about the assessment being done by the state while schools are not opened. Many states such as Jharkhand, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have made digital apps to promote learning. The pivotal role of parents and communities have been highlighted by all the states and UTs. States and UTs also shared the details to promote online learning through digital devises, Doordarshan and Radio etc.