Arunachal: students of govt schools are learning in two ways in Changlang
In Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, students of government schools are learning in two ways - both physical classes and through online classes.
CHANGLANG ( By- Sanjoy Chakma ) In Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, students of government schools are learning in two ways – both physical classes and through online classes. In the morning students attend their physical classes in their classrooms and in the afternoon, they attend live classes online.
This learning support structure is helping the children studying in Changlang district to learn through regular and systematic planned online live interaction with the online teaching volunteers using highly quality planned activities, which then gets supplemented and complimented in offline classes. This hybrid learning support is being implemented by India Foundation for Education Transformation, under the purview of its Learning Continuity Program, launched by Dr. Devansh Yadav, District Commissioner, Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
The government teachers and the IFET teaching volunteers collaborate and plan their teaching units, chunk by chunk, which then gets manifested into their daily lesson planning. Based on this, IFET volunteers take online classes to support and fulfill the lesson objectives set by the government teachers. Before the students could attend their offline classes at school, they get a pre-learning learning exposure to clear their doubts, to get introduced to the topics, concepts prior to attending their offline classes in their online classes. Thus through hybrid learning there is a higher chance of content consumption and assimilation.
In retrospect, it may be noted that the “Learning Continuity Program was launched by the District Administration of Changlang in the first week of August 2020 led by the Deputy Commissioner of Changlang, Dr. Devansh Yadav himself as a response program to the pandemic to help students continue their learning – preparation for their board exams and to mitigate risks on their mental health,” says Prahlad Chakma, Director of IFET. The program designed and implemented by India Foundation for Education Transformation under the guidance of the Deputy Commissioner, Changlang has been directly running online classes in 15 Govt. Secondary and High Secondary Schools located in Changlang, Diyun, Bordumsa, Miao, Namphai, Kharsang and Jairampur.
“When we launched the Learning Continuity Plan for the government schools our sole objective, with no fixed date of school reopening, was to cover the entire syllabus, especially for the Board appearing in class 10 and 12 students,” says, Sanjoy Chakma, Program Director. “As of now, we have helped complete more than 60 percent of the class 10 and 12 syllabus of the targeted subjects in some schools and in some schools we have completed about close to 50 percent of the syllabus,” he adds. With the reopening of schools physically in the mid-week of November 2020, the learning structure was changed to suit the needs of the schools-thus many live classes timings had to be rescheduled in the evenings. The learning model as of now is a hybrid model of learning.
With an intention to bridge the learning gaps of children, India Foundation for Education Transformation has launched a foundational skill project in two government schools at Government Higher Secondary School, Innao and Government Secondary School, Gautampur. Under this project foundational skills acquisition focussing on literacy and numeracy skills for classes 6 to 8 are the targeted learning outcomes up until the first week of February 2021.
Under this project, the organisation has roped in volunteers to teach Coding to class 7 and 8 children of Government Higher Secondary School, Innao.
The said organisation has been helping children to keep themselves productive and engaged during this Covid times. Myriad of activities, events have been conducted, such as quiz, essay writing, singing contest, art and craft events, for children at pan-India level. Recently, the organisation had organised two pan India level events on Children’s Day and Christmas Day, which attracted children from all over India. “The idea of organising these activities is to give a platform to help to raise their overall wellbeing to remain engaged and productive,” says Shambhavi Singh, Event Intern with IFET. That apart, the organisation conducts sessions such as yoga, physical exercises, career counselling and cyber safety.
