Virtual schools will ensure greater inclusion and will provide advanced digital learning platforms through virtual live classrooms and labs, said Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan during an online event to mark one year of the New Education Policy (NEP) – 2020.
Speaking at the launch of the Virtual School of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Pradhan said, “This school is a new model of learning and is an example how leveraging technology and innovation can facilitate greater inclusion in education. The school will provide advanced digital learning platforms through Virtual Live Classrooms and Virtual Labs,” he added.
Pradhan also launched an Alternative Academic Calendar of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). He said that this Alternative Academic Calendar has been developed to facilitate teachers and parents to assess the children’s progress in learning. “The Alternative Academic Calendar contains week-wise plan of interesting and challenging activities, with reference to learning outcomes, themes and chapters taken from syllabus or textbook,” Pradhan said.
He said the Centre is upgrading school infrastructure, such as ensuring that internet reaches the village schools across the country.
Also read: Need to explore best hybrid model combination of online and classroom learning: Venkaiah Naidu
An official statement said the NEP 2020 envisages education as a continuum without any segmentation and focuses on making education more experiential, holistic, integrated, and discovery-oriented. It also focuses on education being character-building, inquiry-driven, learner-centred, discussion-based, flexible, and more joyful for the students.
The statement said that the Department of School Education and Literacy has achieved 62 major milestones which will eventually transform the school education sector. These include the launch of National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN) Bharat Mission with a vision to ensure every child achieves the desired learning competencies in reading, writing and numeracy by the end of the third grade, by 2026-27.
Aligning the existing scheme of Samagra Shiksha with Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4) has also been highlighted as a major milestone. Vidya Pravesh- a three months School Preparation Module for Grade I children, a blueprint of National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR), and capacity building of Secondary teachers under National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA) with a focus on improvement in quality of teachers and learning outcomes of students has also been achieved.
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