Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 24 (EMN): Summer and winter breaks for students in Nagaland are likely to be cut down as compensation for the loss of classes due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Principal Director of School Education Shanavas C, on Thursday said: “This year, whether people like it or not, we’ll have to cut down these breaks (summer and winter).”
In an interaction with a section of media at the Secretariat complex in Kohima, he said that besides cutting down of breaks, ‘we will have to make Saturdays a working day.’
He pointed out that almost one month of classes have been lost and with the ongoing lockdown “we are looking at the loss of classes of two months”.
Therefore, those two months of classes have to be compensated and reframe the academic calendar.
On plans to improve teaching quality, he said that after the lockdown is over, teachers will have to come back strongly because the state cannot afford to lose education for this academic year.
He said that strict measures such as ensuring of filling up the teachers’ diary would be maintained. He also shared that the department is planning to introduce some sort of mechanism to monitor the teachers’ dairy though that is yet to be finalised.
Won’t affect HSLC/HSSLC results
When asked whether the result declaration of the high school leaving certificate (HSLC) and higher secondary school leaving certificate (HSSLC) for the academic session will be affected due to lockdown, he said that the department and the Nagaland School Board of Education (NBSE) are trying their best not to let the lockdown cause any delay.
‘The NBSE, from their side, is carrying out paper works in a decentralised manner and is in the process of collecting back all the reports. Hopefully, there should not be any delay in declaring the results. Fortunately, examinations were able to finish before the lockdown,’ he said.
As for results declaration, the officer said that he will be discussing it with the NBSE. ‘But generally it comes in the month of May and it is expected to be declared at that time,’ he added.
Online classes: not practical in government schools
Even as schools have been encouraged to provide online classes during this lockdown period, the practicality of such exercises has to be taken into consideration as well.
Speaking about the challenges of virtual classes, particularly in the government schools, he said that online classrooms are not practical in rural regions.
Pointing out further, he said that even when classes are running, there are also students from poor economic backgrounds who just attend the classroom-teaching and go back home and are not able to study for one reason or the other.
For those students, one cannot expect them to check their WhatsApp messages and study, he said. ‘Therefore, it is not very practical to implement online classes in such scenario.’
Consequently, the department has directed teachers to at least have personal interactions with parents via digital platforms and give some assignments every day for students to work on.
‘However, virtual classes can be possible in private schools unlike government schools. There are students who go to good private schools, and are from well off economic backgrounds. Such students are able to access online classroom which is why some of the schools in Dimapur and Kohima have already started. It’s a good thing and we encourage them to do it,’ he added.
Shanavas informed that teachers have been directed not to leave their stations because even if it is a lockdown period, Mid Day Meal distribution activities should run and teachers should be in their work stations to take care of these activities.
Further, teachers have been instructed to be in their schools and teach the children about the importance of hand-wash, sanitation, especially during this time.
He also said that the department is in touch with the district education officers, sub-divisional education officers to ensure that all those directives are followed.
Post-lockdown directives have also been issued. When schools reopen, all school heads have been asked to provide proper hand-wash stations and maintain basic hygiene in their respective schools.
On the possibility of promoting students without conducting examinations, he said that the department will follow only the directions of the ministry (Human Resource Development).
The first priority will be compensating whatever classes that have been lost due to lockdown, so that students’ life will not be affected, he asserted.
Earlier, because of lockdown and sealing of colonies and villages, Mid Day Meal could not be distributed but now some schools have started distributing. He added that the first quarter of the Mid Day Meal has been released.