Delhi govt issues circular for teaching-learning activities in its schools

The Delhi government's Directorate of Education (DoE) on Saturday issued a circular about conducting teaching-learning activities for 2021-22 in government and its aided schools from nursery to Class 12 till they reopen.

The action plan for the session, encompassing the ''approach and implementation strategy" and divided into three stages, includes a staggered approach for students to ease into the teaching-learning process, read an official statement.

"With the onset of the pandemic, learning loss has been massive. This year, we not only need to reduce the learning loss but also provide deep emotional support to our children. They need to be mentally prepared for any teaching-learning activities," said Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia in a statement.

 

"This year, we will have close alignment between teaching-learning strategies and assessment so that the dependency on one time exam for year-end results is reduced," he added.

He reiterated that while schools will remain closed until the situation of the Covid pandemic eases, the engagement between teachers and students will resume immediately, using "online and semi-online approach".

The three stages will start from June 28, July 5 and August, respectively, it said.

During the first stage, the teachers would update their students' contact details, make Whatsapp groups and prepare a list of those with smartphone, mobile phone or no phone, in the second stage they will introduce light activities like reading, writing and numeracy in classes up to eighth through worksheets, it said.

"In classes 9 to 12, the focus would be recapitulating and understanding where the child currently is through online classes and worksheets, apart from supporting emotional wellbeing. The second stage will be till the end of July," it noted.

The stage three, which will begin from August, would focus on class specific activities to bridge the learning loss. So where nursery to class 8 will receive generic and subject-specific worksheets, for classes 9 to 12, online classes by the respective subject teachers shall be conducted, it explained.

According to the circular, short notes capturing important points of the online classes will be provided to students of 9 to 12 class having difficulty in accessing digital devices.

"These notes can be collected by the parents from the school on a weekly basis. The parents who do not have smart phones can collect the worksheets on a weekly basis from the school of their child," it said.

Also, according to the circular, this year, special emphasis would be given to assess students by conducting regular "monthly assessments" and using innovative approaches to understand the participation level and learning of students.

"The nature of these assessments will be based on Project / Activity / Assignment. The record of such assessment shall be maintained by the schools which will be uploaded on students' modules as part of Internal/External assessment for the session 2021-2022," it added.