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Education News

DELHI AICTE advisories. SWAYAM courses
Covid silver lining — managed and conducted by IIT

professors — offer class IX to univer-
sity-level lectures on Prabha DTH TV
channels, and are being promoted as
a useful interim arrangement to cope
with current classroom transaction
disruptions.
Meanwhile — and perhaps inevi-
tably — top-ranked private schools,
colleges and universities have quickly
switched to online platforms to
deliver lectures, lessons, assignments
and even project assignments to at-
home students using Zoom, WebEx,
Loom, Google classroom, Skype,
among others. “We were among the
first schools in the country to move
to online classes in the first week of
March itself. Currently we conduct
daily online classes from 8 a.m-1 p.m
Mount Abu Public School, Delhi online class: private schools’ quick switch using Zoom and Google Classroom.
I am confident that all glitches will
he breakout of the global to all students in classes I-VIII as be removed as teachers and students
Coronavirus, aka COVID-19, mandated by s.16 of the Right of become familiar with the technolo-
Tpandemic has brought educa- Children to Free & Compulsory gies involved, which is a bonus in it-
tion systems around the world to a Education (RTE) Act, 2009. For self,” says Arunabh Singh, director
grinding halt with lockdowns and students in classes IX and XI, whose of the CBSE-affiliated Nehru World
stay-at-home orders prompting mass examinations are pending, the board School, Ghaziabad.
closure of education institutions. has directed schools to use term re- Indeed some educationists
In India, since the March 25 sults to promote or detain students. paradoxically appreciate that the
mandatory nationwide lockdown, all Class X exams have been completed Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the
teaching, assessment and evaluation (except for the riot-hit area of Delhi’s leisurely pace at which Indian educa-
work in education institutions has northeast district) but evaluation tors were introducing game-chang-
been adversely impacted and in most work is on hold with evaluators ing ICT (information communication
cases deferred. All major examina- asked to assess papers at home and technologies) in education. “Never
tions, including public entrance submit marks online. For class XII, before in history have India’s higher
exams such as JEE and NEET have the board has decided to reschedule education institutions adopted new
been postponed and several school- exams for 11 main subjects when ex- technologies and pedagogies with
leaving board exams in the states ternal conditions permit. The CISCE such zeal. Some institutions which
of the Indian Union abandoned board has not officially cancelled its were proactive in utilising technol-
midway. On March 18, the school- exams but is to take a decision on ogy have the advantage over status
leaving class X and XII exams of the rescheduling them. quoists, who preferred continuity
Delhi-based pan-India CBSE and The silver lining of this depress- over modernisation. But now every-
CISCE school boards were postponed ing scenario is acceleration of the body is realising there is no escape
until further notice. This story was switch to online education plat- from online learning and have start-
repeated in higher and professional forms and options countrywide. The ed getting their acts together. This
education institutions, which also national digital education platform will do a lot of good to the education
had to close down campuses and SWAYAM, a massive open online system,” says Asheesh Gupta, pro
discontinue classes and project work courses (Moocs) initiative of the vice chancellor of Lakshmipat Uni-
mid-semester. Union HRD ministry, offers a wide versity, Jaipur.
Meanwhile on April 1, the CBSE array of school to university study Experts say training teachers to
board, which has 22,145 affiliated programmes including 61 undergrad use virtual platforms is an objective
schools, issued a statement direct- and 43 postgraduate courses. It is that needs priority attention as there
ing them to award mass promotions seeing a spike in users after UGC and is no dearth of online content. AICTE

12 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2020