Managing COVID-19: NCERT to make learning an enjoyable experience

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education, or CBSE, is planning to take the boredom out of learning by adopting an innovative academic calendar.

An alternative calendar is being developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

The CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal advised school principals to follow the new calendar for classes 1 to 12. “This calendar is specially developed around activities that will help attain Learning Outcomes in a joyful manner. This calendar also suggests ways and means to use technology to aid and facilitate this process of learning.,” she said.

Karwal said that the calendar will also suggest ways and means to use technology to aid and facilitate education through ‘joyful’ learning games and activities.

Asking the school principals to reinvent education processes for managing academic activities in situations like the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the chairman said, “We believe that this is the time to not just deal with the current emergency, but also build foundations of resilience to face such difficult events in the future.”
The curriculum will be shared soon with the schools.

Use of technology

Emphasizing on the new trends of e-learning, the chairman said, “It’s also the time to embrace technology – whether it is Internet based or not.”

Karwal said that technological tools like group video calls, conference calls, simple voice calls can help in effective communication with one another.

She also cautioned that syncing online classes with the normal timetable followed in school, without adequate planning and preparation “may give more stress without any positive outcomes.”

She also encouraged the school heads to make use of the digital learning and e-learning platforms provided by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD).

The board has sensitized the parents about the misuse of online learning and possible exposure to age inappropriate content and advised them to make the students aware of it, as reported by Indian Express .

The chairman has also advised parents to involve children in household work. “The running of a kitchen is an immense learning resource,” the chairman remarked. “The kitchen is perhaps the best lab one has at home,” she added.

The chairman asked the principals to share their innovative timetables, content, assignments, question banks, etc. with the board on Affiliated Schools Activities Report (ASAR) app, “so that your efforts do not remain limited to your school," and best practices can be replicated for the benefit of all.

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