Table of Contents
CURRENT AFFAIR
- The Centre is planning to start the next academic year virtually.
- Many schools have been shut since early March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even before the countrywide lockdown.
DETAILS
- The new academic calendar will begin as usual in April for classes 9 to 12, though the last academic year may have been somewhat truncated, with examinations postponed in some cases including the CBSE exams for classes 10 and 12.
- It has been decided that the cbse will conduct exams only for the main subjects: required for promotion or may be crucial for admission in higher educational institutions.
- The Centre plans to restart classes in the distance mode, with teaching via dedicated TV and radio channels in English and Hindi.
- There is an existing program, Swayam Prabha, which is a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite.
- National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has been asked to create a structured programme for schools class-wise along with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) using their syllabus.
- The material will be ready for use by schools following the NIOS or the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus.
- For the State Boards
- Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) mobile app has been offered to States as a platform to provide content in local languages.
- If States are willing to produce the content in local languages, the Centre can give them 2-3 hours on the channel.
Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing
- Diksha Portal was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)
- For providing a digital platform to teachers giving them an opportunity to learn and train themselves and connect with the teacher community.
- It is built considering the whole teacher’s life cycle – from the time student teachers enroll in Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) to after they retire as teachers.
- States, government bodies and even private organisations, can integrate DIKSHA into their respective teacher initiatives based on their goals, needs and capabilities.
- It also provides access to NCERT textbooks and lessons, following the regular school curriculum.
National Institute of Open Schooling
- Formerly known as National Open School (NOS)
- Established in November,1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
- Government of India has vested NIOS with the authority to examine and certify learners registered with it upto pre degree level courses whether Academic, Technical or Vocational.
- NIOS provides a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and community oriented courses besides General and Academic Courses at Secondary and Senior Secondary level.
- It also offers Elementary level Courses through its Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE).
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