Delhi Government has launches first phase of its online learning activities with children amidst nationwide lockdown
SMS/IVR starts from April1 for Delhi Govt. school students, of classes KG to Std 8., with one assignment everyday
S K Vyas
New Delhi, April 3, 2020: The Delhi Government has launched the first phase of its online learning activities with children. Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia had earlier announced that from April 1, the Delhi Government will be coming up with innovative ways of learning through Live/online classes for Std 12 children and SMS/ IVR (recorded phone calls) for students of classes KG to Std 8. This is in the wake of the nationwide lockdown till April 14 due to the spread of Coronavirus,
On April 1, the first text message was sent out to all the parents of Delhi Govt. school students by the Hon'ble Education Minister. The message which was in Hindi read: “Namaste. It is important that the studies of your child is not hampered due to the shutdown of schools. That’s why we will be sending a new activity to you every day. I would request you to do that activity every day with your child. Manish Sisodia, Education Minister”
Today’s activity was sent out to 28663 parents of Kindergarten class students, required the kids to identify vegetables cooked at home today and draw and color pictures of the same. Through this activity, the message to the parents was to see any items in the household as potential teaching-learning material.
Another exercise for students of classes 1 and 2, was sent today to encourage them to estimate the number of items available in the home which they can hold in their hand and then actually hold them. 24291 messages for this activity were sent out to parents of Class 1 students, while 25111 parents of Class 2 students received this activity today.
With an aim to connect with the elders of their family through stories, students of classes 3 to 5, were assigned the task to listen to a story from their grandparents/parents of their time today. They also have to write it down in their own words. The activity was also aimed at helping students gain an understanding of different life experiences of their elders in the past as compared to their own in the present.
Total number of messages sent out for this activity was 78998.
Lastly, for classes 6 to 8, an exercise was designed to help students understand how the family budget works and to improve their calculation skills along with developing an understanding of their household income and expenditure. In this activity, the students were required to note down last month’s income and expenditure in their notebooks and analyze it.
Total number of messages sent for this activity was 426761.
This initiative was taken by the Delhi Government in an effort to continue with the learning process of the students which is stalled due to the lockdown, as schools and educational institutions are shut. Deputy Chief Minister had earlier said in a press conference held on March 30 that after discussing with the senior officers, educational consultants, HoS and teachers, as to how to continue the learning process of the students, we have decided to send one activity to mobile phones of their parents via SMS or IVR (recorded phone calls). The daily activities will involve tasks for students around memorizing new things, brushing up their speaking skills, improving their writing skills, etc. These activities will be completed by the students with the help of their parents and also written down in their notebooks. After the school reopens, these assignments will be checked by their respective teachers and immense weightage will be given to them. These activities will be a part of the students’ internal assessment.