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News: The Ministry of Education has issued guidelines to States for offering support to students during the closure of schools and when they reopen to minimize the impact of the pandemic on school education across the country,
Facts:
Key Guidelines:
- Door to Door Survey: States to conduct door-to-door surveys to identify children out of school and migrant students and prepare an action plan to prevent increased drop-outs, lower enrolments, loss of learning and deterioration in the gains made in providing universal access, quality and equity in recent years.
- Globally, the United Nations had estimated that almost 24 million school age children are at risk of dropping-out from the educational system due to COVID-19 this year.
- Relax Detention Norms: States should relax detention norms to prevent drop-outs this year as well as a slew of measures to address learning loss due to the coronavirus-induced shutdown of schools.
- Guidelines during Closure of Schools: The States have been recommended to explore the option of classroom-on-wheels and classes in small groups at the village level, increasing the access of children to online and digital resources, use of TV and radio to reduce learning losses and ensuring easy and timely access to the provisions of uniforms, textbooks and mid-day meals.
- Guidelines after Reopening of Schools:
- States should prepare and run school readiness modules and bridge courses for the initial period so that they can adjust to the school environment and do not feel stressed or left-out.
- Identify students across different grades based on their learning levels and relaxing detention norms to prevent drop out this year have also been recommended.
- Large-scale remedial programmes and learning enhancement programmes should be held to mitigate learning loss and inequality.
