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| Government committed to ensure safety and academic welfare of students: Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Picture Courtesy: Twitter |
New Delhi (Lisbon Times):- The Union Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' chaired a meeting with
School Education Secretaries of all States & UTs through video
conferencing discuss the various measures adopted for the management of
education system during COVID and the different strategies adopted for online
and offline learning in Schools so far and the way forward. Minister of State
for Education Shri Sanjay Dhotre; Secretary, Higher Education Shri Amit Khare;
Secretary, School Education, and Literacy Smt Anita Karwal and senior officials
of the Ministry were present in the meeting. Representatives from almost all
the States and UTs attended the meeting including additional Chief Secretaries,
Principal Secretaries and Secretaries Education Department; and with other
State officials such as the State Project Directors, Director SCERT, etc. This
is the biggest meeting held on School Education during the pandemic.
Addressing
the meeting Union Minister said that the current situation of COVID-19 is
unfortunate, but Government is committed to turning the situation into an opportunity
by doing new experiments to ensure the safety and academic welfare of students.
The
Minister emphasized the need to continue the coherent efforts made by the
states and UTs in the previous year and underscored the importance of reaching out
to the most vulnerable and marginalized children in this pandemic period. He
further stated that the Department has taken up several Initiatives in 2020-21
for facilitating continuous learning during the pandemic. These include:
expansion of DIKSHA under PM eVIDYA; DTH TV channels under the bouquet of
SWAYAM PRABHA TV channels; launch of online NISHTHA training for teachers at
DIKSHA; Launch of Manodarpan to cater to the socio-emotional and psychological
needs of the students, etc. Also, several initiatives have been taken to reach
out to children without access to digital education. He also underlined the
importance of involving various stakeholders for the effective implementation of
the National Education Policy 2020.
Shri
Pokhriyal noted all the problems and suggestions made by the States. The States
also appreciated the efforts made by the Ministry of Education providing all
possible help to States to ensure the academic welfare of students. The Union
Minister thanked all the States for their commendable work in the field
education and assured them that the Ministry will extend its full support in
this difficult time and together we will fight this problem.
Acknowledging
that the Government has adopted new and innovative methods in Indian education
system to address the challenges arising due to covid pandemic, MoS Shri Sanjay
Dhotre stressed upon exploring ways to provide hybrid education comprising of
both offline and online teaching methods. For this, we would need new learning
methodologies, quality learning content, and evaluation assessment model, he
added. He emphasized that the scientific temperament of students will play a
deciding role in post covid world, therefore, education system of our country
should focus on developing critical thinking ability, logical reasoning ability
and scientific temper among students. He called upon everyone to work together
as a team in furthering the spirit of NEP 2020 and effectively implementing it
to achieve the desired goals.
I met State Education Secretaries to review the #COVID situation, online education, and work around NEP. Education is the top priority and as instructed by the Government of India, a COVID action plan to ensure uninterrupted education is required. pic.twitter.com/O3tx9NWjwY
— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) May 17, 2021
A
comprehensive COVID Response document has been issued by the Department on 4th
May 2021 and it delineates a detailed action plan with corresponding timelines for
all Stakeholders involved in Access, Retention, Continuous Learning, Capacity
Building and Stakeholder engagement.
The
major areas identified for intervention are: Identifying and mainstreaming of
Out of School Children and ensuring sustained Enrolment, Retention and
Transition; Academic learning & cognitive development of students; Capacity
building- with a specific focus on blended and home-based learning including
student assessments and data use; Nutritional, socio-emotional support; Digital
education and monitoring, tracking, and remediation.
Further,
the following components of Samagra Shiksha have been built into special and
focused interventions in view of the present pandemic situation:
·
Learning
enhancement/enriching program to provide supplementary material to children
·
Library
grant for ensuring availability of reading material to students
·
Special
Training for Out school children and Children With Special Needs.
·
Support
for out of school children of age group 16 to 19 years through NIOS/State open
schools.
·
SMC
training to be utilized for ensuring community participation, parental support
·
Teaching
learning Material at ECCE and primary grade
·
Setting-up
a help desk at the Panchayat level and creating awareness through the use of mass
media. It can also be used for conducting online learning and content
dissemination over electronic media.
·
Child
tracking funds may be utilized for preparing student registry
·
Special
Grants to schools for sanitization and hygiene
·
Teachers
grants for awareness on safety and security in online mode and for enabling
them to use online means of education.
·
Grants
for online content development and dissemination.
·
Grants
for teachers for accessing NISHTHA training over the DIKSHA platform.
·
Composite
school grants to ensure continuity of learning and at least 10% of it to be
used for Water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools.
The
Department has started conducting the meetings of the Project Approval Board
for approval of Annual Work Plan and Budgets of the states under Samagra
Shiksha in the virtual mode, so that the states and UTs can get timely
approvals for implementation of the above interventions.
Further, ad-hoc grants to the tune of Rs 5228 crore have already been released to the states under Samagra Shiksha and an amount of Rs 2500 crore will be released soon to ensure continuity of various educational initiatives by the states and UTs
All states and UTs have shared their strategy for continuing the learning process during the pandemic. It was reported that most of the children have received the textbooks and apart from this, various supplementary graded material has also been prepared by the states. Haryana and Gujarat shared the details about the assessment being done by the state while schools are not opened. Many states such as Jharkhand, Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have made digital apps to promote learning. The pivotal role of parents and communities has been highlighted by all the states and UTs. States and UTs also shared the details to promote online learning through digital devices, Doordarshan and Radio, etc.
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