Academic calendar in tatters, govt pitches for online education

The government on Tuesday made a strong pitch for an online system as the country's academic calendar has been disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic. HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has asked the states to adopt an alternative academic calendar released by NCERT suiting their local situation and requirements.

New Delhi: Seeking a way out of the desperate situation due to the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the country’s academic calendar, the government on Tuesday made a strong pitch for an online system.

The Union human resource development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal asked the states to adopt an alternative academic calendar released by NCERT suiting their local situation and requirements. The minister also asked the states to start evaluating answer scripts for those subjects whose exams had been completed.

The abruptly announced lockdown due to the pandemic had disrupted the CBSE 10th and 12th exams without completion of the process. The CBSE is yet to take a call on the pending board examinations after it was decided that out of 86 remaining subjects, examinations for only 29 main subjects will be conducted.

The Union HRD minister’s direction to the states came during a video conference on Tuesday with state education ministers from 22 states and education secretaries from 14. The primary focus of the meeting was on schools with other issues including higher education likely to be taken up in subsequent meetings.

The minister also said to provide mid-day meals even during the summer holidays of schools that will cost Rs 1,600 to the exchequer. The annual central allocation of cooking cost under the mid-day meal scheme was also upped by Rs 800 crore from Rs 7,300 crore to Rs 8,100 crore.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Ambrish Rai, co-convener, Right to Education Forum (REF), said, “The state governments should activate the chain of school management committees and also take help of local teachers to assure that meals are delivered to the doorstep of every student.”

REF is a conglomerate of about 10,000 organisations working in 20 states across the country.

Flagging the issue of pending board examinations, Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia pointed out that it would not be possible to conduct board examinations in the prevailing situation and therefore the same method adopted for class 9th and 11th should be followed for the board exams as well.

“It would not be possible to conduct examinations of 10th and 12th, so the students should be promoted on the basis of internal assessment,” Sisodia had tweeted after the meeting.

The Delhi minister also sought three hours of air-time on national broadcaster Doordarshan and on All India Radio FM everyday so that teachers of Delhi government schools can conduct on-air classes. Sisodia also suggested 30 per cent slashing of the present academic syllabus in schools besides a cut in the course content for competitive exams like NEET and JEE.

Tuesday’s deliberations included suggestions of measures to keep the school education on track after the easing of the ongoing lockdown.

Talking of a significant aspect of the contagion-induced fallout, Rai said there will be a major challenge as children from unorganised sectors who are not attending schools for such long period will get involved in child labour, trafficking and the number of dropouts will drastically increase due to the lockdown situation.

“To retain such students in schools, the government must devise some strategy to facilitate and engage them with the academic system. Counseling for girl students, distribution of sanitary pads, special programmes on Doordarshan etc are some steps to retain them.”

Rai also sought proper health equipment for teachers who should be incentivized and encouraged to provide psycho-social support to students.