Himachal Pradesh

The Department of Education and Samagra Shiksha have launched a home-based teacher facilitated self-study program during the lockdown period announced by the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh, to engage students in meaningful learning activities for 2 hours on a daily basis for classes 1-12.

Har Ghar Pathshala Campaign

The main motive of Har ghar Pathshala campaign is to engage students in learning activities during COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh. In this situation Himachal Pradesh launched an e-learning programme to ensure continuity of students learning from home. The programme “Har Ghar Pathshala’’ has been launched as an online mode of education.

Har Ghar Pathshala is a WhatsApp based initiative where the State Project office (Samagra Shiksha) disseminates the e-content to children through BRCCs and further by teachers. Students go through the content (videos) and solve the worksheets in their notebooks and send back the photograph of the solved worksheet to their teachers. Teachers in turn provide feedback to the children.

Objectives fo Har Ghar Pathshala

• To ensure students learning does not get hampered due to closure of schools in this pandemic.
• Boosting emotional well being, immunity and fitness of students.
• To ensure an inclusive learning environment for children with special needs.
• Teachers constructively use this time to do online self-paced training through “Teacher APP”. 

Launch by State leaders and awareness through media

The Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Jai Ram Thakur and the Hon’ble Education Minister Shri Suresh Bhardwaj launched the program on 9 April for classes 1-8, within 2 weeks of the lockdown being announced. On 16 April, online classes for 9-12 were also started.

Creation of e-content:

• E-content has been created by more than 100 SRGs class wise and subject wise and disseminated to the students on a daily basis.
• Content includes 1 to 2 videos and 1 worksheet for each subject.
• Through WhatsApp groups Himachal Pradesh was able to connect with 70% students every day.
• More than 650 worksheets and 850 videos have been shared with students of classes 1 to 12 till date (mid-June, 2020).

To create readiness for learning among students, teacher’s shared simple activity based assignments through WhatsApp in the first week of the lockdown, & later on, content specific videos & worksheets were being shared.

Dissemination of e-content: Three channels are being used-

• Dissemination of e-content through whatsApp groups.
• Dissemination of content through TV – 3 hours slot on DD Himachal, covering grades 10 and 12.
• In some hard area like Kaza the worksheets are being Xeroxed and are being provided to the students.

The content is being disseminated through whats App groups and more than 70% students are being reached every day. As per google analytics, 622,392 total users, with 3.5 crore page views on this website (nearly 1.2-1.4 lacs users coming daily).

Online inclusive Education for CWSN (Hum Kisi se Kam Nahi- Mera Ghar Meri Pathshala)

Children with special Needs (CWSN) are also embraced in the campaign of Har Ghar Pathshala to ensure an inclusive learning environment. Keeping in mind the special needs of differently abled students, WhatsApp groups of CWSN created by the District inclusive Education coordinator cater to the educational, psychological and physiological needs. This campaign has been named as “Hum Kisi se Kam Nahi- Mera Ghar Meri Pathshala’’. The content is being shared through WhatsApp groups where special educator assigns home work for the children. The special educator provides guidance to the parents regarding home-teaching in this programme.

Campaign for pre-Primary (Karona, Thodi Masti, Thodi Padhai

The Government of Himachal Pradesh has initiated a very promising pre-primary program in more than 3700+ government schools, thereby benefiting 30,000+ children (age group 3-5). In the Covid-19 situation, these very young children were bereft of the joyful learning environment of pre-schools. Digital content is being disseminated to the parents of these young children through WhatsApp. The teachers interact with parents to keep them motivated. As the campaign name suggests- “Karona, Thodi Masti, Thodi Padhai ‘’ is a perfect blend of joyful learning where children learn while playing through age appropriate video/audio content learning activities.

Sampark Didi App

• The main objective of this program is learning Enhancement and it covers Class-2 and Class-3.
• This program focuses on English.
• This program is accessible via Mobile App.
• This App can be accessible via both online & offline and it contains Explanation Videos.

Vocational Education

• The department has taken the initiative to conduct online classes for vocational students and hence VTPs are ascertaining the approaches to commence online classes for vocational students.
• State has commenced the idea of online classes in the first week of April 2020 and the progress of classes is being constantly monitored and reviewed through DCOs and VTPs.
• As on date we have been successfully conducting online classes in 95% of 953 implemented vocational schools, across 15 sectors i.e. Agriculture, Apparel, Automotive, Beauty & Wellness, BFSI, Electronics & Hardware, ITeS, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Physical Education & Sports, Plumbing, Private Security, Retail, Telecom and Tourism & Hospitality. Out of 65062 enrolled students 49260 students are undergoing virtual classes conducted by Vocational Trainers.

Swayamsidham

• The main objective of this program is Learning Enhancement and support for competitive Exams for class 09 to class12.
• During this programme the targeted students will be engaged for three hours on a daily basis from 10:00 AM. to 01:00 PM. Educational content packages of videos & exercises will be sent daily to all teachers through Deputy DHE and Principal/Headmasters using WhatsApp groups. Initially the following subjects of Classes 9, 10 & 12 have been included in the program.
  • 9th – Science, Mathematics, Sanskrit, English
  • 10th – Science, Mathematics, Sanskrit, English
  • 12th (Humanities)- English, Sanskrit, Political Science
  • 12th (commerce) – English, Economic, Mathematics
  • 12th (Science) – English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology

The educational content is available on departmental website Directorate of Higher Education Shimla Govt. Himachal Pradesh  and Har Ghar Pathshala The below website contains several content such as Explanation videos, Assessment, e-test Books and lesson plans.

Assessment Dashboard

Assessment Dashboard has been developed by the State of Himachal Pradesh to monitor and assess learning profiles of students in the elementary grades. Link of the dashboard is as under: 

Samarth Assessment Dashboard

ICT Infrastructure

• There are 1202 Smart Schools in elementary education (Class 1-8).
• There are 513+1824 (out of 1824, 200 schools are under implementation) Smart Schools and 513+1824 digital labs in secondary education (class 9-10).
• There are 1824 (out of 1824, 200 schools are under implementation).

Sameeksha - Shiksha Saathi Mobile Application

Sameeksha is a technology based integrated review and monitoring system developed by State Project Office, Samagra Shiksha (HP). The core elements of the program constitutes three technology platforms- Shiksha Saathi mobile application, State Inspection Dashboard, and District-level Action Point Trackers, to enable a robust and integrated mentoring and monitoring mechanism, focused on guiding goals of quality of education, access, equity, affordability, and accountability, across the state. This is an overarching initiative for the education department extending from pre-school to Class XII with a broader goal of improving the academic performance of schools and ensuring that students achieve the desired learning outcomes. The platform has streamlined the existing governance processes for review and monitoring in the state and has improved efficiency and increased transparency of the system. 

Important feature of this Application

• Technology based review and monitoring mobile application with offline capabilities, i.e, it can work even when there is no internet
• Provision to record evidence, like photographs and documents on school visits on the mobile app
• The application records the location from where the school visit form is filled and helps to keep a check on the monitoring
• State Inspection Dashboard is used to analyse the data conducted on the monthly school visit and take data backed decisions
• Various parameters of Performance Grading Index, at the school-level used in State rankings, defined by MHRD is also analysed through this program
• Analysis of strengths and weakness of the school, especially with respect to parameters of world rankings.
• Preparation of a school specific action plan / strategy for improvement on various parameters is created
• Progress on each parameter as per the action planis monitored in the review meetings every month
• Ensure implementation of the RTE Act 2009 and PwD Act 2016 to address gender an social equity within a framework that is holistic and systematic

Integrated Learning Enhancement program (e- Samwad)

Himachal Pradesh is proposed to strengthen the quality of education via an integrated learning enhancement programme. The components of integrated LEP are:-

• Learning outcome based assessments
• Utilisation of Supplementary materials for identified weaknesses of students through assessments 
• Involvement of parents in ensuring accountability of students towards studies

Continuous Learning Programme for Professional Development of Teachers through TEACHER App

The programme, set to be launched by the Education Department on 17th September 2018, is aimed at facilitating better performance of all 6,00,000 elementary school students through continuous support for capacity building to teachers. Through Continuous Learning, the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan will share short videos focusing on fundamentals of all subjects, activity based learning, pedagogical tips and skill building of teachers, designed by experts on a monthly basis. The video content created and curated for teachers by the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in partnership with a non profit organization TheTeacherApp focuses on the learning outcomes (NCERT defined basic learning goals or targets that need to be attained by students). The content for teachers has not only been selected keeping in mind student performance, but is also available offline once downloaded and will be shared via SMS in order to reach teachers in the most far flung areas of the state. These will be brought to practice by teachers in their classroom. At the end of each month, the cluster heads are expected to facilitate discussion on the courses and their classroom implementation with the teachers within their cluster, thus creating a peer mentoring and support system at the ground level. 

In this manner, the SSA hopes to be able to provide resources and support for continuous professional development of the teachers, and in turn, bring about an upwards shift in the performance of all students in its schools

Source : India Report Digital Education