HRD minister addresses parents' concerns in live interactive session

Addressing the issue of school education, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank discussed several steps taken by the government after the lockdown was announced.

New Delhi:Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Monday addressed the parents and answered to their questions in a live interactive session which was streamed on Facebook and Twitter.

The normal classroom education has been disturbed and many examinations had to be postponed amid the situation of health crisis caused by the outbreak of COVID-19.

The education ministry has been promoting online education system and launched several platforms during lockdown to cater to the students ranging from primary to senior secondary and higher education.

India has one of the largest educational infrastructures with more than 1000 universities, 45000 colleges, 15 lakh schools, 1 crore teachers and more than 33 crore students.

All of them have been affected by the lockdown and the regular academic session will be lagging behind by at least two months now.

Addressing the issue of school education, the minister discussed several steps taken by the government after the lockdown was announced.

"We have already announced that all students from class 1st to 8th studying in CBSE schools will be promoted to next classes, students studying in 9th and 11th standards will be promoted on the basis of internal assessment of their performance during the academic session. A total of 83 exams of 10th and +2 examinations are pending out of which only 29 have been identified as main subjects by the CBSE and it was decided that examinations for only 29 main subjects will be conducted once the situation gets to normal and government take a final call on ending the lockdown period" said the Education Minister.

"Similarly the competitive examinations which were postponed will also be held only after the end of lockdown period" he added.

Talking about the online learning platforms of government like SWAYAM, SWAYAM-PRABHA, DIKSHA and E-Pathshala, the minister said that major decisions were taken on promoting online education and making it better.

"Today we have 32 channels of Swayam Prabha which are also being broadcasted on television channels. More than 80000 syllabus and learning materials are available on DIKSHA platform. Vidya Daan was launched and we asked stakeholders to contribute with interesting materials and content. So far we have received more than 9000 syllabus and learning material through Vidya Daan and now we have also launched Vidya Daan-2 now" said Nishank.

The HRD minister also mentioned about the achievements of E-Pathshala and platforms launched for Higher education and research fellows like YUKTI portals where all research-related works by IITs,ISHER and other premier institutions are available.

During the interactive session with parents, Education Minister said that he has been in constant touch with education ministers, departments, secretaries and other officials of different state and for the first time during lockdown he will be interacting with the Education Ministers of all the states to take stock of the situation and discuss on future strategies.

"Since education is an important matter it is necessary to join hands with the states and work together to make things better. This is the question of millions of students and we will do whatever it takes to overcome the loss caused by this crisis" said the minister.

The HRD minister also appealed parents not to pressurise their children for only studies and requested them to make the students feel relaxed during these tough times.

•Evaluation of papers

Addressing the issue of evaluation of papers, the minister said that the matter is being discussed and they are trying to start the process of evaluation for the papers which were conducted before lockdown.

• Social Security and Social Distancing is a Mantra

Advising the parents to follow guidelines strictly, the education minister requested all the parents to download Arogya Setu App.

• NCERT books and New Academic Calendar

Talking about the provisional academic calendar issued by CBSE recently, the minister assured the parents that all efforts are being made to minimise the loss. He also said that the NCERT has said that that they have already delivered NCERT books to all the states and they will soon be available at local stalls. The minister also requested the parents to opt for online learning and said that all books have been made available online.

This was the first time that HRD minister was directly addressing parents and during the interactive session, he mostly emphasised on online medium of education for students.

Discussing the National Treasure of Free Educational resources, the minister mentioned NROR where 14527 files of content are available.

The HRD Ministry has been pushing for online medium of education right from the beginning of lockdown and according to HRD Minister, more than 16 crore students have used DIKSHA portal so far.

The minister concluded with assuring the parents as well as appealing them to stay united during the tough time. He clearly said that the pending examinations will be held only after the establishment of normalcy.