TED Newsdesk, New Delhi: Educational organizations are facing major consequences due to COVID-19 crisis, thus, online classes come out a hero in this pandemic situation. Why the human feel model? Manish Sisodia says the digital divide is the danger if teaching moves wholly online. However, private school students are able to manage their class though internet classes, but there are students who haven’t introduced with the online classes yet.
There is a large percentage of government schools’ students who don’t have a Smartphone in their homes are incapable to attend classes. Hence, in the press conference, Education Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia said that online education might create a Digital Divide between those who have and have nots.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is working on the progress of the students and after ensuring all the aspects they have come up with a model of human feel. Where technology is playing a crucial part but there is a lack of connectivity between the two so they core emphasis on the one-to-one interaction among educators and students. Meanwhile, all activities will be under observation of the SMC (School Management Community), and member of the education ministry to get the overall report.
Well, in this education model, they divided the model into three sections K.G to 8th, 9th to 10th, and 11th to 12th. With every class, their respective teaches will individually stay connected with the students through WhatsApp groups and phone calls.
Why the human feel model? The digital divide shaped the plan
The detail sits in a circular issued by the Directorate of Education on 2 July 2020, headed “Teaching Learning Activities for July 2020”, whose text was later reproduced in full in a Delhi High Court judgment. It notes that government schools will stay closed until 31 July under an earlier order, but says teaching for students in Directorate of Education schools will start from the first week of July using alternate strategies, so that academic loss is kept to a minimum. All classes from KG to XII are split into three cohorts, each with its own approach, using a combination of digital devices and the support of parents and School Management Committees.
For the youngest cohort, KG to class VIII, the circular prescribes daily “syllabus agnostic worksheets” of no more than one page, aimed at reading, writing, understanding, basic numeracy and what it calls happiness among children, in sub-groups for KG to II, III to V and VI to VIII. A team of teachers from the directorate’s Core Academic Unit, mentor teachers and the primary branch prepares the sheets, and the IT branch sends a week’s worth to each head of school every Saturday by WhatsApp.
Class teachers are told to keep their WhatsApp groups up to date, preferably running two per section, one where only the teacher posts and one where parents and children reply, and to keep a separate list of the families who are not on WhatsApp at all. Each worksheet goes out with an audio message explaining how it should be done at home.
Parents without WhatsApp are to be phoned and invited to school to collect printed sheets for the week, with no more than five parents called in at a time. Children’s finished work comes back as a photograph or audio message, and teachers are asked to reply with brief, positive feedback. Heads of schools may pay for the printed copies from the SMC or examination fund, and district deputy directors are to review coverage every week.
In the human feel model, Manish Sisodia has said, the digital divide is to be closed by teachers and parents rather than by devices alone: the printed sheet and the phone call do the work for families the WhatsApp group cannot reach.
He said, the core function of this model is to emphasize learning with Human feel so there will be no digital divide. For the first two sections, the teacher will send assignments and lesson plans on the WhatsApp group and connect on calls to clear doubts. Meanwhile, those who can’t join through digitally their parents can collect the study material and worksheet on a weekly base, so there will be no Digital Divide between students. Moreover, educators will reach out to parents and students through WhatsApp and Phone call to get regular feedback.
On the other hand, students of classes 11 and 12 will attend their online classes to be conducted by their subject teachers. For the same, teachers will connect them through calls or WhatsApp groups so there is no gap of doubts. However, there is also a segment of students who can’t afford smartphones therefore they can also collect their study material and lesson plan from the school premises.
Last but not least, the Delhi government is doing its best to provide an authentic education model so students do not lose out on academics due to the current situation in the country. With the aim of providing fine education, they encourage students in several ways and try to minimize the loss of education and experience of classroom learning. Although it can’t replicate in an online learning environment but, they are tiring their hard to make possible.
Although they are running this model on temporary basis for just a month to see how this works on actual areas and if this goes perfect, they will continue working on the same model or with little changes.
What has happened since
The plan was extended within days. A further directorate circular dated 13 July 2020, also reproduced in the High Court judgment, told heads of schools to engage willing guest and contract teachers for the remote teaching work, to be treated as on duty and paid as per norms. On 14 July the Ministry of Human Resource Development released its PRAGYATA guidelines on digital education, which recommended limiting live online sessions to no more than two of 30 to 45 minutes a day for classes 1 to 8 and four for classes 9 to 12, and no more than 30 minutes a day of interaction with parents for pre-primary children.
The digital divide behind the human feel model, Manish Sisodia’s own concern, reached the courts that autumn. On 18 September 2020 a Delhi High Court bench of Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula ruled in Justice For All v Government of NCT of Delhi, a public interest case seeking devices and internet access for children from economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. The Delhi government’s counsel relied on the 2 July and 13 July circulars to argue that its approach met its obligations.
The court held that private unaided schools must provide the equipment needed for online classes to such students, bearing any extra cost in the first instance with a right to claim it back from the state under the Right to Education Act. “Digital divide in our country is a known fact, and is indeed inter-connected with economic disparity,” Justice Narula wrote. The Education Daily reported the judgment at the time.
National survey data published that October showed how much the WhatsApp route mattered. The Annual Status of Education Report 2020, a phone survey of rural households carried out in September 2020, found that the share of enrolled children whose families owned at least one smartphone had risen from 36.5 per cent in 2018 to 61.8 per cent.
WhatsApp was the most common way that learning materials reached children, for 87.2 per cent of private school pupils who received them and 67.3 per cent of government school pupils. Government school children who received materials were also far more likely to have got them through personal contact with a teacher, 31.8 per cent against 11.5 per cent, the pattern the Delhi plan was built around.
