COVID-19: Delhi Govt to start classes in April with SMS, IVR, internet

NEW DELHI : Government schools in Delhi will restart classes via text messages and voice recordings for students from nursery to Class 8 during the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19. For Class 12, classes in two subjects per day will be held online, starting from the first week of April.

In a joint press briefing on March 30, Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister shared the government’s plan for salvaging the school year for students as they remain confined to home during the lockdown period.

Students of nursery to Class 8 will be promoted under the “no-detention policy” of Right to Education Act.

Nursery to Class 8

For children in elementary school (till Class 8), every parent will be sent one activity daily through text messages and interactive voice response, or IVR. These activities will involve reading, writing and speaking. The child will be required to complete it with the help of family members but must maintain a project book that the teacher will check later. It will be given "weightage in internal assessment", said Sisodia. Teachers will remain in touch with the students and their parents on phone.

Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio in Delhi government said: “The students should not stop learning and the learning should continue through the medium of their parents, teachers and technology.”

Senior classes

For Class 12 students, Delhi Government will employ online learning. Students will have to register on an online platform on which, classes will be held on two subjects daily. The platform will be functional in the first week of April and the link for it will be sent to students through text messages. Teaching for Class 10 students will be started a few days later in a similar format.

We are worried about the education of our children during the lockdown period. Several measures are being planned. pic.twitter.com/TyQya3LEJr

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 30, 2020

Delhi Government will also bear the cost of data packages students will need to access online lessons. “If needed, we will also start education through TV channels,” said Sisodia.

He added that the government is “creating a plan for Class 9 with CBSE” and will announce it once it’s finalised. Delhi Government schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education as Delhi does not have board of its own.

For students who have to go to Class 11, the government is waiting for the board results.

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