Hyderabad: The Telangana government has come up with a collaborative adjustment learning system for e-education. It will begin an alternative academic year from September 1, where online classes for government school children from kindergarten to class XII will be conducted.
The classes will be made available on Doordarshan, T-SAT network and the internet.
The Directorate of School Education (DSE), Telangana has directed headmasters of schools from remote villages to make alternative arrangements. That is by categorising and identifying the number of school children based on the availability of e-education resources (TV/smartphones/internet connectivity/laptop) they possess, as per The Indian Express report.
There are around 24 lakh school children according to an estimate. Majority of those students come from marginalised communities.
“They can learn at a friends house who has a TV or smartphone. Anyway, this is not the beginning of the official academic year, so students from remote areas will not be affected as the gram panchayat would help them make collaborative arrangements. It is an alternative academic year. The modalities for re-opening schools are being worked out and would be based on the directions made by the central government,” an official source from the DSE said.
The government has directed gram panchayat and district education officers to arrange collaborative screening programmes for students who don’t have access to any of the resources required for e-learning.
T-SAT network will be available on Bharti Airtel DTH and Airtel Xstream App. The channel remained largely inaccessible as it was only available on cable TV, until recently.
Under the collaborative arrangement, teachers are required to attend school regularly from August 27 to prepare e-education content. However, schools will remain closed for students and Centre’s COVID-19 norms will be followed.
Moreover, admissions have started for the academic year 2020-21 even though it has not officially begun. Also, classes I to XII will follow the calendar prepared by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
DSE has also directed online classes for primary and pre-primary school children under the supervision of adults. In addition to it, the headmasters of the schools have to ensure that worksheets and textbooks reach students before online classes start.
Furthermore, out-of-school children are to be identified and brought back to school with special emphasis on migrant labour children and children with special needs.
Class – screening time/ day
- Kindergarten/ Nursery/Playschool — Only up to 45 minutes/ five days a week
- Classes I to V — Two sessions a day/ not more than 45 minutes / five days a week
- Classes VI to VIII — Three sessions a day/ not more than 45 minutes each/ five days a week
- Classes IX to XII — Four sessions a day/ not more than 45 minutes each/ five days a week