Context

Recently the Ministry of Human Resource Development has released PRAGYATA - Guidelines on Digital Education through online medium

About

• The guidelines have been prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
• These are only advisory in nature and state governments can formulate their own rules, based on local needs.
• It will help in mitigating the CoVID -19 pandemic impact that has led to the closure of schools and has impacted the learning of over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools.
• The guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online/blended/digital education for students who are presently at home due to lockdown.
• These guidelines on Digital/ Online Education will provide a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education.
• The guidelines stress upon the use of an alternative academic calendar of NCERT, for both, learners having access to digital devices and learners having limited or no access.
• The PRAGYATA guidelines include eight steps of online/ digital learning that is, Plan- Review- Arrange- Guide- Yak(talk)- Assign- Track- Appreciate. These steps guide the planning and implementation of digital education step by step with examples.
• The guidelines outline suggestions for administrators, school heads, teachers, parents, and students in the following areas:
  • Need assessment
  • Concerns while planning online and digital education like duration, screen time, inclusiveness, balanced online and offline activities, etc., level-wise
  • Modalities of intervention including resource curation, level-wise delivery, etc.
  • Physical, mental health, and wellbeing during digital education
  • Cyber safety and ethical practices including precautions and measures for maintaining cyber safety
  • Collaboration and convergence with various initiatives