Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal’Nishank’ released the alternative academic calendar for Classes XI and XII. The calendar has been developed by the NCERT under the guidance of the MHRD to engage students during their stay at home due to COVID-19.
The HRD Minister said the calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learner, parents and teachers even while at home.
However, it has taken into account the varying levels of access of students to different tools and platforms-Mobile, Radio, Television, SMS and various social media.
Pokhriyal said that the students who do not have internet facility, or may not be able to use different social media tools- such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc., this calendar guides teachers to further guide parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice call.
The Minister added that this calendar will cater to the need of all children including children with special needs- link for audio books, radio programmes, video programme will be included.
The Minister informed that the calendar contains week-wise plan consisting of interesting and challenging activities, with reference to theme/chapter taken from syllabus or textbook. He added that it maps the themes with the learning outcomes.
Pokhriyal highlighted that the calendar also covers experiential learning activities such as Arts Education, Physical Exercises, yoga, etc. This Calendar contains class-wise and subject-wise activities in tabular forms. This Calendar includes activities related to four languages as subject areas, i.e., Hindi English, Urdu and Sanskrit. He added that this calendar also gives space to the strategies of reducing stress and anxiety among teachers, students and parents. Calendar includes link for Chapter wise e-content available on the e-pathshala, NROER and DIKSHA portal of GoI.
