October Unit Test std 9 to 12 time table and syllabus declared
Although parents tend to worry about giving too much screen time to their children, a survey conducted among low-income families by Central Square Foundation (CSF) revealed how — even in the pre-Covid days — children between the ages of 3 to 9, were spending an hour to 90 minutes each day on their parents’ phones each day. CSF is now advocating for this time to be spent on watching engaging and high-quality educational content to reduce the learning gap and achieve foundational literacy. With the governments pushing online education, there is also a gradual change in the perception of some parents that serious education cannot be done using the cell phone. CSF’s Gouri Gupta likened the Covid crisis as being a “Sputnik moment for EdTech (educational technology) in India” and that understanding what works and what does not will be very important in the post-Covid inclusive growth of EdTech in the country.
Learnings for creating a conducive policy framework
State governments such as Karnataka and Maharashtra have banned online classes for very young children, but Karnataka has allowed the use of recorded videos and has appointed a committee to suggest guidelines for revoking the ban. It would be good for such committees to keep some of the learnings outlined here in mind. The guidelines that MHRD is contemplating i.e., restricting the length of class time to up to two hours on weekdays, getting parents and volunteers to help teachers, and requiring schools to offer content in multiple mediums to cater to students with varying degrees of technology access or even no access, and providing for the physical and mental health of students, are all very good steps in the right direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment