Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : With a view to engaging the students meaningfully during their stay at home due to COVID-19 through educational activities at home with the help of their parents and teachers, the alternative academic calendars for students, parents, and teachers for all the classes I-XII has been developed by the NCERT under the guidance of the Ministry of Education.
Alternative Academic Calendar (AAC) for four weeks and next eight weeks for primary and upper primary stages had already been released. AAC for secondary and higher secondary stages for four week had also been released earlier by the Union Minister of Education. The AAC for next eight weeks for the secondary stage was released by the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually on September 15, 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Pokhriyal said that the Calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learner, parents, and teachers even while at home. However, it has taken into account the varying levels of access to such tools-Mobile phone, Radio, Television, SMS and various social media, according to a PIB release.
The Minister highlighted that many of us may not have internet facility in the mobile phone, or may not be able to use different social media tools- such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc., so the calendar guides teachers to further help parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice call. Parents are expected to help elementary stage students to implement this Calendar.
This calendar caters to the need of all children including Divyang children (Children with Special Need)- link for Audio books, Radio programmes, Video programme will be included, Pokhriyal added.
The calendar contains week-wise plan consisting of interesting and challenging activities with reference to theme/chapter taken from syllabus or textbook. Most importantly, it maps the themes with the learning outcomes.The purpose of mapping of themes with learning outcomes is to facilitate teachers/parents to assess the progress in the learning of children and also to go beyond textbooks. The activities given in the calendar focus on learning outcomes and can thus be achieved through any resource including the textbooks children are using in their state or UT.
It also covers experiential learning activities such as Arts Education, Physical Exercises, yoga, pre-vocational skills, etc.This Calendar contains class-wise and subject-wise activities in tabular forms. It includes activities related to four languages as subject areas, i.e., Hindi English, Urdu, and Sanskrit. It also gives space to the strategies of reducing stress and anxiety among teachers, students and parents. The Calendar includes link for Chapter wise e-content available on the e-pathshala, NROER and DIKSHA portal of Government of India.
