Lockdown may push NEET 2020 exam further

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March 25, 2020

In the wake of rising coronavirus outbreak, PM Narendra Modi has announced a national lockdown. National Testing Agency (NTA), would most probably, postpone the NEET 2020 examination as well. The NEET 2020 exam is scheduled for May 3, 2020.

In the current scenario, the exam may be pushed to June. NTA has advised all the students to utilise this time to practice for the medical entrance examination. Any decision taken over NEET 2020 exam would be updated on their official site page.

Over the past 15 days, the country has gone into a partial lockdown. From schools to postponing board exams, the HRD Ministry had also postponed the JEE Main 2020 exam. The ministry has not taken any decision of NEET 2020 exam.

The admit card is scheduled to release in the end of March. With lockdowns in place till April 14, the impact on the May 3 examination is likely to be less. Candidates can download NEET 2020 admit card on ntaneet.nic.in. The admit card may release on March 27.

NTA is expected to reassess the situation and announce the new dates for the JEE Main 2020 examination on March 31.

CT University Switches to Online Education, Amidst Corona Scare: Mr. Harsh Sadawarti, Vice – Chancellor, CT University, Ludhiana

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 25, 2020

The novel corona virus and the Covid-19 disease it causes, have become the gravest public-health threat across the globe, and on March 11 the WHO declared it as a pandemic. Like in other nations, it has put pan India on the super alert mode. Almost all organizations and departments, public or private, are now working from home. As a preventive measure and to ensure social distancing, faculty, staff and students have been given a break till further orders under the instructions of the Government, Higher Education Department and UGC. The CT University is fully concerned that the endangered pandemic situation which is beyond control should not cause academic loss of students. It has discontinued classroom instruction and moved classes online as one of the ways to help students continue their studies when the university is closed.

The free digital content along with relevant links, resource material are made available to students without any charges. The content is in conformity with the curriculum and has been devised to impart chapter wise and topic wise learning and assessment. The online access is available either on android mobile, phone, tablet, laptop or desk top. The teachers have prepared daily task format on Google sheets and the same is followed and monitored by higher authorities on daily basis.

The faculty is delivering online deliberations in interactive mode – video conferencing, and Skype. The subject matter notes, resource material, questionnaire, etc., are provided to students through the Google Class Rooms generated by the ERP System of the University. The links of useful video clippings, webinars, simulators, ppts, slide shows and recorded talks are being shared among students. The students speak, ask questions, and take part in the discussion with their teachers.

The students, who are still in the hostels have been provided wireless internet hotspots facilitating them to use WiFi to complete course work and log on classes. The ppts are loaded with voice over for topics relevant to the courses.

Assignments topics are being shared with students on the assignment panel. Students are made to work on these and submit completed assignments online by the fixed time. The efforts are proving successful and daily progress is being monitored. The administrative and gubernatorial departments are also working online to help students in case of need. The students are reaping the benefit and faculty is ensuring that their education is not affected in any way due to the ‘lockdown’. The university has made arrangement for appraisal of assignments, quizzes and online tests have been made. The Semester will be clubbed with the ensuing Summer Session so that the students are able to complete their programme without academic loss. The CT University pleads its students, faculty and staff to observe all precautions and stay protected against the spread of corona Virus.

(Mr. Harsh Sadawarti, Vice – Chancellor, CT University, Ludhiana)

Government schools are shut, so how will children learn amid the COVID-19 pandemic? : Shashank Pandey, Co-Founder & President, ConveGenius

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 25, 2020

EdTech solutions like CG Slate can offer at-home learning opportunities for all Grade 1 to Grade 12 students, and also help the local teachers, Academic Resource Persons, State Governments etc reach students in virtual ways.

We have put up a bridge course for all students that addresses common misconceptions and key pre-requisites before a student enters a new grade. This course could be covered in 3-5 months – enabled with personalised learning journeys for every student.

Students can use the CG Slate app on an existing Smartphone at home, and their school teachers can access our real-time dashboards to chat with the students, solve doubts, analyse chapter-wise performance data of each student, and play a key role in facilitating learning for students.

The CG Slate app backtracks on a student’s learning progression, sometimes reaching back to foundational concepts, to find any learning gaps, thus helping students of varying abilities achieve mastery. The school teacher also may introduce a number of jobs or responsibilities students need to complete in order to maintain the phygital classroom.

The technology could also provide the State Government with suggestions to broadcast LIVE/pre-recorded sessions by gauging the strengths and weaknesses of students across the state. These video sessions can be dynamically added in the student learning journeys.

Only with everyone’s cooperation and collaboration can the learning environment flourish the way it should.

(Shashank Pandey, Co-Founder & President, ConveGenius)

COVID 19- Matific provides complimentary access to schools

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March 25, 2020

Due to coronavirus epidemic, all the schools and education institutional are closed. All the schools and institutions have opted online teaching technology for students. In this hour of crisis, e-learning is the best potential way of teaching students.

An online mathematics resource, Matific has been one of the pioneers in the industry. To provide relief to school in this lockdown, Matific is providing complimentary access for 60 days to all schools.

Vibha Mahajan, VP Matific India said, “They are providing complementary access to lockdown schools for 2 months”.

She even said, the award winning program is aligned to national curriculums,provides live reporting and can be accessed remotely and implementation is super easy too”.

Mahajan said Content in Matific is aligned with CBSE, CISCE, IB and many other boards in India. Matific consists of engaging activities and games that promote conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills, she said.

Mahajan said, Matific is an Australian educational technology firm, which offers digital gamified platform for primary maths and also offer online gamified Maths resource for kids from Nursery to Grade 6.”

She also said, “separately, we have experience with large-scale, rapid deployments of our product across hundreds of schools simultaneously. Within a few days, we could make all primary schools live on our platform, enabling their students to study maths from home.”

Matific is being used in thousands of schools in more than 60 countries in 40languages across the world.

Calls for cooperation from everyone to tackle COVID-19: Ms Heema Sharma, Principal, KR MANGALAM WORLD SCHOOL, Greater Noida

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 25, 2020

COVID19. Hard Hit to Nation

The number of children, youth and adults not attending schools or universities because of COVID-19 is soaring. Governments all around the world have closed educational institutions in an attempt to restrain the global pandemic.

According to UNESCO monitoring, over 130 countries have implemented nationwide closures, impacting over 80% of world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localized school closures and, should these closures have become nationwide, millions of additional learners will experience education disruption.

UNESCO is providing immediate support to countries as they work to minimize the educational disruption and facilitate the continuity of learning, especially for the most vulnerable.

School closures – even when temporary – carry high social and economic costs. The disruptions they cause touch people across communities, but their impact is particularly severe for disadvantaged boys and girls and their families.

Some of the reasons why school closures are so harmful are listed below. While the list is far from comprehensive, it helps to clarify why school closures should matter to all of us.

Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools closed,children and youth are deprived opportunities for growth and development. The disadvantages are disproportionate for under-privileged learners who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school.
Nutrition: Many children and youth rely on free or discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy nutrition. When schools close nutrition is comprised.

Parents unprepared for distance and home schooling: When schools close parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to perform this task. This is especially true for parents with limited education and resources.

Unequal access to digital learning portals: Lack of access to technology or good internet connectivity is an obstacle to continued learning, especially for students from disadvantaged families.

High economic costs: Working parents are more likely to miss work when schools close in order to take care of their children, incurring wage loss in many instances and negatively impacting productivity.

Unintended strain on health-care system: Women often represent a large share of health-care workers and often cannot attend work because of childcare obligations that result from school closures. This means that many medical professionals are not at the facilities where they are most needed during a health crisis.

Increased pressure on schools and school systems that remain open: Localized school closures place burdens on schools as parents and officials redirect children to schools that are open.

Dropout rates tend to rise: It is a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after closures. This is especially true of protracted closures.

Social isolation: Schools are hubs of social activity and human interaction. When schools are closed, many children and youth miss out of on social contact that is essential to keep society safe.

However the faculty members are regularly conducting online classes for students and which are interactive and interesting too,wherein kudos to those teachers who have converted their room into classroom.

The virus has really hit hard to the country yet hoping that social distancing,frequent hand wash ,staying in house would be best way to stay safe.
This is every individual’s responsibility towards nation to keep everyone safe.

(Ms Heema Sharma, Principal, KR MANGALAM WORLD SCHOOL, Greater Noida)

Adversity is an opportunity for change: Article on COVID 19 by: Gurdeep Kaur, Principal, Shri Harshad C. Valia International School, Mumbai

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March 25, 2020

Engulfed by the threat posed by this global pandemic and the challenges to contain the corona virus educational institutes and students are facing a huge setback due to the closure of schools across the globe. Though this closure is inevitable and necessary, more so because a school environment is very well suited for the transmission of the disease considering the fact that we have several students packed together in a classroom.

We, at Shri Harshad C Valia International School, have pledged to take care of ourselves and others in terms of safety and at the same time believe in utilizing this time to upgrade our skills and learn a new skill. We all agree that digitization, e learning, online learning are the mantras for the day but not many of us could do justice in the true sense, whatever maybe the reason like time, resources etc. We need to be highly creative in these trying times to develop strategies as fast as the obstacles appear .Its definitely not an easy task to completely change the teaching mode as there are emotional and psychological scaffolds needed to teach in this new paradigm.

Everybody thinks they can’t, before they can .Online or distance learning poses a lot many challenges in the initial stages but they are not unsurmountable. Maybe the future has just become the present and online teaching is the new normal. Therefore, we at Shri Harshad C. Valia International School decided to plunge into this ocean and submerge ourselves completely as time and space are at our disposal. The school exams were called off and assignments were designed and provided immediately which were to be completed and mailed back to their respective teachers.

We started by updating ourselves on videoconferencing tools, subsequently conducted staff meetings on “The Zoom platform”, followed by recorded lectures by teachers’ .Once the teachers were acclimatized with the platform, live lectures were started, which was really enjoyed by the students and highly appreciated by their parents. The teachers are now using google classroom, an amazing tool for providing teaching material, assignments and assessment.

There is so much we yet need to be acquainted with and we are open to change, because that is the whole purpose of Education…… to replace an empty mind with an open mind.

(Gurdeep Kaur, Principal, Shri Harshad C. Valia International School, Mumbai)

Dr. Arun Kumar Singh: Maneuvering online courses is need of the hour

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March 25, 2020

“The tools you would like to use are the tools you’ve got before the crisis hits.”

In India unfortunately, we all are finding ourselves in extraordinary times with the outbreak of COVID-19. This has meant that variety of academic establishments have had to shut for time and variety of scholars and their families have had to self-isolate and therefore owing to COVID-19, most professors and students suddenly notice themselves forced to use technology as they teach and learn.

Given that faculty and educational units scrambling to maneuver courses on-line, it’s currently painfully clear that academic establishments have to be compelled to have had additional sturdy disaster-preparedness plans in situation within the event of interruptions in their field operations. However, as a result of several academic establishments didn’t have such plans in situation and don’t have nice infrastructure or resources to create sensible on-line courses space, on-line learning is getting ready to get a foul name at several academic establishments, I suspect.

So if that is the worst outcome, what ought to establishments do to forestall that? The support they have to show and learn on-line, the higher education institution has traditionally been seen as slow to adapt. However educators, featured with unexampled urgency I feel there certain principles to follow and precisely we are attempting to implement at our institute.

* Where attainable, produce active learning experiences-ones within which there’s synchronous communication, needed category sessions, frequent opportunities for college kids to answer queries and defend answers, discussion their peers, tackle issues, and therefore the like Zoom/Hangout/Google Class etc.

* Bear in mind that on-line learning is not concerning put the college member front and center just like the MOOCs did. Meaning that teaching bound ideas may not be best accomplished through lecture-capture technologies, however instead by showing a transmission clip, use from NPTEL/SWAYAM/YOUTUBE, however do not overload students’ memory with ample modality and visual effects. Keep the medium straightforward and interesting.

* Begin session with a stimulating question or contradiction, and so weave a story along to assist illustrate the lesson. Students learn best after they have a puzzle that they require to resolve, and that we retain ideas through compelling stories.

* There are tools to form science lab and different live experiences on-line – through things like Labster, or rising VR/AR technologies.

So now we all have to be compelled to move towards merging learning being the norm as ancient campuses move on-line platform to deeply integrate students’ work-life experiences into their program of study.

(Dr. Arun Kumar Singh, Head-School of Management of Studies, JIMS Engineering Management Technical Campus, (Affiliated to GGSIPU, New Delhi), Greater Noida.)

Every Challenge is an Opportunity. It’s time to CARE: Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Education

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Raghav Podar

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March 25, 2020

Schools are preparing students for jobs and industries that don’t exist yet. Today’s children will be solving problems that we don’t know are problems yet, by using technologies that haven’t even been invented yet. While schools have been busy figuring out how to prepare students for this uncertain future, the unpredictable future has already dawned upon us, and how!

With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, life as we know it has been thrown off all normalcy. All those meticulously planned arrangements for our students’ learning journeys have been obliterated and we are all compelled to confront that uncertain future we once sagaciously fore told. While schools emphasized the need of developing 21st century skills in their students, there has never been a more opportune time in our lives for schools to walk the talk!

Like in any major storm, trees that don’t have strong roots and are built on weak foundations fall and face grisly deaths. Institutions are no different. Institutions with strong roots, solid foundations and robust systems emerge out of onslaughts even stronger, as long as they continue to C.A.R.E.

While there are many important 21st century skills, the ones that are need of the hour are:

Critical Thinking: We live in an era of information bombardment; from the time we wake up till our eyes shut at night – and for some of you, even during your sleep, the incessant beeping of pointless notifications and forwards consume our day. It is critical that schools play their roles prudently as mentors and guides to the thousands of parents and community members that look up to them. School Heads must display critical thinking themselves; educate students and even more so their parents, how to consume and spread news through this information barrage. The ability to critically analyse, verify and then take informed, smart decisions to propagate that piece of information or trash it, is crucial in today’s sensitive times.

Adaptability: The one characteristic that has stood out in successful schools across eras is their ability to adapt to change. While the world is routinely changing at a rapid rate, learning adaptability to that fast pace of change was expected as commonplace. Blitzkriegs like the COVID-19 virus hit us out of nowhere, and unless schools are nimble on their feet to re-assemble and re-program their meticulous plans, they stand the risk of becoming another casualty, falling by the wayside. Many successful schools have already started teaching their lessons through Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), adapting agilely as the path unfolds in front of them.

Resilience: Schools that have managed to implement Critical Thinking and Adaptability would have certainly faced failures along the way. If they succumbed to their failures on the road to their goals, they wouldn’t live to tell their story. The institutions that took failure in their stride, realising that failure is just a stepping stone to success, and it teaches you far more than success ever can, are the ones that became the islands of excellence, floating on vast oceans of mediocrity. The ability to display resilience to our students, and truly imbibe it ourselves is what makes great institutions stand the tests of time.

Empathy: Thankfully unlike most other industries, schools are not about competition, but about collaboration! Successful schools must take it upon themselves to help weak, disadvantaged schools. How can a school expect its children to imbibe empathy when it chooses to gloat about its achievements, but doesn’t stop and help its neighbourhood underprivileged school rise from its difficulties? These are difficult times for one and all, my plea to all successful schools – stretch out your hand and help lift disadvantaged schools out from the dust.

Make sure both of you wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds before and after 🙂

Stay safe; stay positive. To all my brethren of the school fraternity, we have overcome many challenges, and this mountain too shall we overcome.

The roughest seas maketh the best captains!

(Raghav Podar, Chairman, Podar Education)

Kendriya Vidyalaya to promote students from class 1 to 8

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March 25, 2020

Amid coronavirus outbreak across India, officials from Kendriya Vidyalaya have stated that students from classes 1 to 8 will be promoted. The promotion will be irrespective of whether they appear for the examination or not.

The officials have stated that the verification of the fee has been done accordingly.

Due to ongoing COVID-19, Kendriya Vidyalaya has suspended classes for its students until March 31, 2020.

All the examinations cancelled in schools, colleges, and universities.

The state boards have also postponed its ongoing class 10 and 12 examinations for the students until March 31, 2020. The new dates of class 10 and 12 board examinations will be released after March 31, 2020.

Classes for the universities and colleges have also been suspended with the classes being conducted online.

The application process for some of the entrance examinations has also been extended.

This crisis can provide new dimensions for Startups

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 25, 2020

COVID-19: The CORONA Virus Pandemic, has undoubtedly affected the whole world and its economy, health, lives, and even future of many sectors. Although its first case was detected in China in December 2019, and then it took one month since then, to come here in India, and we got our first case in India in 30th January (approx.) When it was at initial level we were, not so much worried, and thought that it wont affect India much more. As said, it was a virus outbreak from bats and snakes, so it was quite understandable that it’s safe to stay vegan.

At COEXCL, we are running a digital learning portal, which serves 24×7 online tutor facility and digital contents as per syllabus for all the students of our client schools, and institutes and therefore Our business is majorly dependent on students and schools, so we also thought that it won’t affect our business, because we are into online business sector, and our business don’t require much of the physical products, nor we do any kind of Imports from china but it was not so.

Although our tutors are across world, but they we also least affected by it. Thensoon we came to know through media, about seriousness of the COVID-19 around the world, and even CBSE began to postponed its exams, then we also believed that situation is going to be worse if we didn’t do anything.

For the marketing team the time was going to be much difficult. As most of the academic decisions of schools, institutes and parents are made in between march-april only, so it was a peak time for our business, which was going to vanish in one go. We had made a huge list of prospoects schools and clients, who had really liked our service in trial version, and they even were prepared to implement it as a service to make their school more advanced and equipped with facilities like 24×7 online tutors and all digital contents.

So, many of such deals, meetings, onto which final decisions were supposed to be taken before march were postponed due to COVID-19. Some of our existing client schools were supposed to increase the order size by new academic session (2020-21) also, because they really liked our service last year (2019-20). So, it was a time for us to compromise with all those new acquisitions, prospects, business and plans that we had made in starting of the new year. It was very sad to think of that situation, that you had given demo, free trials, Marketing expenses, taken user feedbacks, and when time came for actual purchase and service delivery, then situation went out of control.

It was a time like, you are driving a car in middle of a race, and then suddenly your brakes fails. Then you realise, that you put so much effort to reach here in the race, you think of all those struggle time, efforts, expenses, preparation, travels, etc, then there are two option, that either you have to neutralise the gear and shunt the car on side, and forget about past, and come again next year or you can put feet even hard on the accelerator. Therefore, at that time, me and our management group took some tough decisions, and implemented. We didn’t applied brakes to our idea, instead we gave more rays. Some of them are as follows:

1. We extended Service time for existing Clients: We didn’t stopped our service to our existing client schools, even we knew that might its possible, that we will be not be paid for the month of march, or might the service renewals will take 1-2 months extra. We didnt even put a single pressure of renewals, or bill payments on our clients schools, instead we told them that the services of March is not chargable, as we don’t look for profit all the time, somethings are meant for ethics also.

2. Work from home is best for tutors also: We encouraged our online tutors, to work from home more efficiently, and on time reply should come for every student’s query, and they did really well. It doesnot matter for us, where are they, important is if they are respecting the work and is understanding the importance of dedications then there is no issue.

3. No Payments hold: We even didn’t stopped payment of any of our associates or staffs, no matter what. Because there was only one thing that mattered to us at that time, was that students (end-users) should be happy and satisfied at any case. So, if we stop any payment, it will affect the service.

4. Building a next level of trust with everyone: So, overall we had some little loss, as for a startup, its not a small thing, and in return to this we got all our client school retained for 100% for the new session, and even few of them are planning to increase the order size with us by as soon as the next session starts. The school management, and especially students were really happy that even epidemic can’t stop their studies and coexcl is always for them 24×7 with all our live tutor assistance and digital learning.

The thing which i learned from this is:

No matter how bad the situation is, if you are affirmed with your quality of service and commitment of work, then the world will respect you. Money loss can however be retained, but if we lose our clients, trust, value and user base for little things like bills then our brand will never have retained. Whatever you do, either good or bad, the universe has a very beautiful mechanism of returning it to you. That’s called faith, so just have faith on yourself, and if your work is worthy you will never go out of sight.

We never look for short term profit, instead we look for a brand value creation in the field of digital learning which is our vision.

(Ravi Singh, Founder & CEO, COEXCL Services Pvt. Ltd.)

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