Bhubaneswar: Even as uncertainty prevails over reopening after COVID-19 lockdown, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has come up with an odd-even plan for schools once they are reopened. As per the proposal, NCERT is planning for 50% attendance of students in school campuses on any given day till the COVID-19 situation improves across the country.
NCERT director Hrushikesh Senapati said as it will not be practically possible to maintain social distancing norms inside classrooms if all students allowed, we are mulling for 50% attendance based on odd-even number of students on alternate weeks.
NCERT is also creating online and interactive study material repository that could be aired via television channels to avoid losses in studies.
At present, most of the private schools in Odisha as well as other parts of the country are extensively relying on various social media platforms to send study materials as per their respective syllabus to students. NCERT officials said that adequate steps are being taken to ensure that students do not face any academic losses due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are creating the guidelines on reopening of schools across the country and will submit the same to MHRD. Once the proposals are finalised, the advisory will be sent to all schools,” said Senapati.
Senapati further stated that such proposals are still under in discussion stage and States also can also bring some modifications to it in subsequent phases keeping in view the COVID-19 situation.
“We have already released alternative academic calendar for class 1 to 10 and learning outcome has been defined. We are focussing on ensuring that there is no academic loss for students who can utilise the time to learn with available online resources by downloading materials from e-pathsala and DIKSHA portal,” said Senapati.
Senapati further stated that focus is to ensure that students undertake several activities which will help them to learn with assistance from parents.