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New Delhi : With a view to keeping the students engaged meaningfully during their stay at home due to COVID-19 through educational activities with the help of their parents and teachers, the alternative academic calendars for students, parents and teachers at primary and upper primary stage have been developed by the NCERT under the guidance of the MHRD. Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank released Alternative Academic Calendar for 8 weeks for primary stage in New Delhi on July 2, 2020. Earlier, four weeks Alternative Academic Calendar for Primary Classes was released by Pokhriyal in April, 2020.
Speaking on the occasion the Union HRD Minister said that this 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, Radio, Television, SMS and various social media.
The fact that many of us may not have internet facility in the mobile, or may not be able to use different social media tools- such as whatsapp, facebook, twitter, google, etc., the calendar guides teachers to further guide parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice call. Parents are expected to help elementary stage students to implement this calendar, according to a PIB release.
Pokhriyal said that this calendar caters to the need of all children including Divyang children (Children with Special Need). It includes links for Audio books, Radio programmes, and Video programme. He said that 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.
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 GoI. All the given activities are suggestive in nature, not prescriptive, nor is the sequence mandatory. Teachers and parents may opt to contextualise the activities and do those activities that the student shows interest in, irrespective of the sequence.
NCERT has already started having live interactive sessions with students, parents and teachers through the TV channel Swayam Prabha (Kishore munch). This calendar has been shared with SCERTs/SIEs, Directorates of Education, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, CBSE, State School Education Boards, etc. A video conferencing has also been conducted with all the SCERTs on the implementation of Academic Calendar.
