New Delhi: The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Thursday released an alternative academic calendar for Classes VI to VIII to meaningfully engage the students during the lockdown period.
The calendar covers week-wise plans consisting of interesting and challenging activities with reference to themes/chapters taken from syllabus and textbook. Besides, experiential activities like arts education, physical exercises, yoga, pre-vocational skills, etc. are also mentioned in the calendar.
With a focus on improving the learning outcome of the students getting school education at home, the calendar also mentions about the strategies to reduce stress and anxiety among teachers, students, and parents. Moreover, audiobooks, radio and video programmes are also available for Divyang children in the calendar.
Besides emphasizing on the weekly plan, the calendar provides guidelines to the teachers regarding the use of various online tools available for imparting education in fun-filled and interesting ways
“It is a fact that many of us may not have internet facility on the mobile or may not be able to use different social media tools such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. Therefore, the calendar instructs teachers to further guide parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice calls. Parents are expected to help elementary stage students to implement this calendar,” HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said while releasing the calendar.
The HRD ministry will soon release an alternative academic calendar for Classes IX to XII as well, the minister added.
NCERT is already taking online sessions for primary classes (11 am – 1 pm) as well as upper primary classes (2 pm to 4 pm) on its YouTube channel, .