Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ interacted live with teachers across the country in the ‘Acharya Devo Bhava’ webinar on Thursday, May 14, 2020, and answered many of their queries. The minister has also shared the video of the live speech from ‘Acharya Devo Bhava’ on Twitter.
In this webinar, he said, that CBSE board examiners who are involved in the paper evaluation are exempt from any online class duties for the time. He was replying to a teacher named Reshu Jain, who had a pertinent question for him in the Twitter live session, “How can a teacher do four hours of online teaching for e-learning classes along with CBSE board exam paper evaluation?”
The HRD minister said that the CBSE paper evaluation has already started off in certain areas, or is about to start off in other areas. He further clarified that CBSE board examiners who will be evaluating board examination answer scripts do not have to carry out their online teaching duties for now. Those teachers also do not need to form any e-learning reports and can concentrate on their CBSE paper evaluation work.
Regarding the school opening strategy after the lockdown, the HRD Minister said, “For the new batch classes for students will start from August or from September, there is no clarity on when the schools will reopen. But the health of our students and teachers is our main concern.”
He further said, “Although work has started, schools will open only under guidelines. The UGC has been asked to form a task force, which will work by taking care of social distance, movement, and all other important things.” In addition, he said that NCERT is exploring a new system to open schools. The NCERT has been asked to prepare guidelines, if 30 percent of the children come in a class according to social distance, then how will the plan be made for it, and other problems pertaining to this issue. While the UGC is working on modalities for higher education institutions including universities and colleges for the upcoming session.
This webinar can be stated as third in a series of seminars planned by the Ministry in order to make education accessible to students during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Earlier, the Minister held webinars on April 27, 2020, and May 5, 2020, addressing the concerns of parents and students.
