Bolo to ePathshala: World Bank releases resource list for online learning

The World Bank has released a resource list for remote and online learning as schools and colleges in India and many other countries are shut to contain the coronavirus pandemic. 

"The list will facilitate the rapid identification of helpful technological solutions that could be used to support remote learning," the Bank said in a statement. 

 

The list, which compiles learning platforms also marks Indian technologies which are facilitating distance education in the times of the pandemic. The list includes Indian platforms: 

ePathshala: Learning on the go, the platforms provide e-books curated in the form of ePubs for school education for all subjects. The portal has been made available offline as provided by NCERT. The multilingual free platform is a content repository and can be accessed on both desktop and mobile. 

Nroer: Nroer, India’s National Repository of Open Educational Resources is powered by gstudio built at Gnowledge Lab, HBCSE, TIFR. The Content is curated by CIET, NCERT.  The free platform is accessible in Hindi and English languages, on both desktop and mobile. 

Story Weaver: Designed to provide children with reading resources, it is a digital gateway to thousands of richly illustrated, open-licensed children's stories in mother tongue languages. This is a digital repository of multilingual stories for children. Children can have access to stories in their mother tongue to read and share. The free multilingual platform is available on both desktop and mobile.

Bolo: This app is aimed at elementary school-aged students, which leverages technology like Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech to help kids learn to read. The free multilingual platform is available on both desktop and mobile.

Designmate: An interactive visual teaching resource that provides animated videos to explain learning material. The video platform is available in the English language.  

Apart from these Indian platforms, the list provides a vast compilation of distance education platforms, which includes The

Global Reading Network, School in a Box, Open Learning Exchange, and Google Classroom. 

These platforms will be helpful for both students and parents to access study materials and a planned approach as shutdown prevails. The HRD Ministry had earlier stated that the decision to open schools will be taken after a review of the situation in the country. "It is difficult to take a decision at the moment. We will review the situation on April 14 and depending upon the circumstances, a decision will be taken on whether schools and colleges can be reopened now or have to be closed for more time," HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal had said earlier.
 

"There are 34 crore students in the country, more than America's population. They are our biggest treasure. Safety of students and teachers is of utmost importance to the government," he added.