Model of Learning Enhancement for Students not Possessing any Digital Device

Objectives

• To reach out to students who do not have any digital device for providing learning opportunities.
• To provide need-based interventions for enhancing learning of such children during school closure.
• To provide support for bridging learning gaps with additional interventions when schools reopen.
• To monitor every group of schools - whether government, government aided or private schools affiliated to the state secondary board or any other board – to ensure that no child in the state/UT is left behind.

Mapping of Learners

• The state would have undertaken a school-wise child-wise survey to map the digital devices accessibility for each child.
• Teachers will need to focus on the children with no or limited access.

Description of the Target Group of Children with No Digital Learning Device (NDLD Group) or Limited Digital Learning Device (LDLD Group)

The group is not homogenous, and may vary in the following factors : 

• Age and classes (i.e., younger and older children)
• Distance of their homes from schools(nearby and far)
• Socio-economic status of parents (middle income, lower income or below poverty line or migrant laborers)
• Educational status of parents (literate or illiterate)
• Language (comfortable in the home language)
• Locality where they are living (open spaces or congested streets)

Following are suggested action to be taken for providing learning opportunities by states/UTs for reaching out to Students having No Digital Learning Device (NDLD) or Limited Digital Learning Device (NDLD)

Actions to be taken by the Schools under the Support of Education Department

Teacher Capacity Building

• Covid-19 is a new phenomenon not only for the learning process, but also for the teaching process. Teachers need to be trained in the different possible modes/formats of teaching during these times
• Teachers also need to be sensitized to the need to ensure there is no learning loss of children, and to therefore adopt different means to reach each child.
• Teachers may be trained on the different formats for teaching-learning-assessment in online modes and offline modes for NDLD and LDLD students in particular.
• More than ever it is now that teachers need to understand the need to focus on teaching and learning based on Learning Outcomes and assessing the child in a manner that measures the achievement of learning outcomes. The SCERTs need to ensure that every teacher in the school education system attains this capacity and is able to use learning outcomes as the central focus of all teaching-learning in all subjects in all grades.

Learning Plans 

In consonance with the move towards learning outcome-based education where focus is on developing competencies in students, the Central Board of Secondary Education has developed Teacher Energized Resource Material handbooks that will aid teachers in aligning their classroom transaction to a competency framework. To begin with these handbooks have been developed for two subjects – science and mathematics – covering entire syllabus of grades 6 to 10.

Each chapter of the resource material corresponds to the respective chapters in the NCERT textbooks. The chapters have been chunked by concepts; these concepts have been linked to the NCERT Learning Outcomes; and an attempt has been made to delineate Learning Objectives for each chapter. Every chapter has a set of assessment items, where two items have been provided as examples for each learning objective. Teachers can use these to assess if the learner has acquired the related concept. Needless to say, the items are illustrative examples to demonstrate how competency- based items can be prepared to measure learning objectives and outcomes. The variety in item forms is suggestive of the ways in which a particular concept can be assessed to identify if the learner has attained different competencies.

• Teachers will need to prepare specific learning plans separately for each of the children in No Digital Learning Device (NDLD) or Limited Digital Learning Device (LDLD) groups.
• The learning plans will be based on learning outcomes and need not depend entirely on textbooks, particularly for primary classes. 

CBSE is in the process of mapping NCERT curriculum against NCERT Learning Outcomes for Grades 1 to 10 for all subjects.

States/UTs can use this as the base or one of the models for undertaking their own mapping of their curriculum.

The link for the document will be shared with states/UTs shortly

• By focusing on how the child can achieve learning outcomes, the learning plan can be based on the present situation of the child at home. For example, for a child in grade I, the learning outcome – associates words with pictures – can be easily taught with the use of resources available from or at home such as newspapers, food packets, things at home, TV programmes, nature, etc. All that will be needed is guidance to the parents.

It is highly recommended that states/UTs may adopt/adapt the Lesson plans provided in the Alternative Academic Calendar prepared by NCERT for NDLD students of all grades. These lessons are mapped to Learning Outcomes and consist of activity-based learning. 

• In this manner, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly Learning Plans will need to be prepared for every learner for every grade.
• For quick assessments, parents and older siblings can be guided. However, some form of worksheets or standard assessment system on a monthly basis need to be devised. 

Children may be categorized in the following two categories with respect to age and classes in view of better planning for interventions. Younger children will need more face to face interventions as compared to older children. In both cases, the focus of teaching-learning must be the achievement of learning Outcomes. 

Ensure that every child has received the prescribed textbook at home

• Since the textbook would be the only resource for children with no digital devices, it must be ensured by the state/UT that every child of every class of every school in the state /UT – whether government, government aided or private schools - must have the full set of textbooks available at home.
• For the elementary stage this is being provided by the state/UT free-of-cost. For secondary and higher secondary stages, school heads can hold a dialogue with older students to voluntarily contribute their textbooks to the schools. The school may distribute these textbooks to those students who are not able to purchase textbooks due to the impact of the pandemic. Announcements may be made in the community about the days of distribution of textbooks from the schools for different classes. Parents/ guardian may collect textbooks maintaining social distancing and taking other precautions.
• In case of children of migrant laborers, if the children have already been tracked and data is available with the state as to which state and city/village they are presently staying, the concerned state can inform Department of Education in the state of the child‟s stay to provide textbooks of that state (there may be issues with the language of the textbook which need to be sorted out by the state/UT). 

The Learning Outcomes to be covered in this period and Outcomes mapped with curriculum may be shared with parents

• Parents/guardians/siblings or volunteers (in case of parents being illiterate) may be called in the school in staggered timing for providing orientation on the use of alternative academic calendar which is learning outcomes based. 
• This will give them an idea of learning outcomes to be covered by the students mapping with different themes across subject areas.
• They may also be guided how some of these learning outcomes may also be covered simply by interacting with child e.g., on food, work they do, shelter, agriculture, their daily and monthly expenditure, etc., and also conducting activities related to day-to-day routine of the child

Specific interventions for Foundational learners

• Theme wise activities and also guidelines for improving foundational literacy and numeracy skills for foundational learners are given in Alternative Academic Calendar developed by the NCERT.
• Parents/Guardian or Volunteers (in case of parents being illiterate) may be called in the school for an orientation on conducting activities with children on foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
• Parents/Volunteers may be guided on creating cards using hard paper/cardboards/waste cartoons for children, by making diagrammatic representation of numbers or alphabets or words on it. Through play way method, they can create interest in children to learn the same.
• School needs to collect some interesting picture and story books from the community or parents of older children, which may be distributed to parents of foundational learners for developing interest and habit of reading.
• Parents of Foundational years – classes 1, 2 and 3 – may be specifically guided that the child must get into the habit of reading and basic numeracy such as counting/adding/subtracting/etc. during this period. If the skill of reading and basic numeracy is lost during this period, the child may lose out on learning in the later years.
• Parents of children in classes 4 and 5 may also be guided to focus on reading, reading with comprehension and numeracy skills.
• Parents may be guided that reading is not limited to only the textbook. This period should be utilized by them to expose the child to reading and reading with comprehension from various sources – newspapers, TV, packaged goods, posters and public advertisements, parent‟s accounting diaries/journals, pamphlets, etc. 

Identifying key Learning Outcomes to be focused upon – such as reading speed, reading with comprehension, basic calculations

• Parents/Volunteers (in case of illiterate parents) may be guided by the school heads or teachers about the activities through which reading speed, reading with comprehension and basic calculation competencies may be enhanced.
• For example - Children of classes 3-5 may be given target to improve their reading speed (using their language textbook) in 3-5 attempts using stop watch (simple watch or clock as well).
• Children of class 2 can aim to read about 35-50 words per minute with comprehension. By class 8 they should try to read more than 150 words per minute
• For reading comprehension they may be asked to tell a story in their own language, which they have read from a book (story book or language textbook or from magazine or newspaper).
• For basic calculation, they may be asked to make a list of items purchased for use at home in last two days and calculate total expenditure incurred for that.
• With children of classes 1 and 2, use of fingers, pebbles or other objects may be promoted for doing basic additions and subtraction.
• School Heads and teachers need to design a number of these kinds of activities focusing on the learning outcomes and orient parents and volunteers on the same. 

How to use Alternative Academic Calendar for NDLD

• Theme wise activities and also guidelines for conducting these activities are given in the Alternative Academic Calendar developed by the NCERT. Parents or volunteers may be called in the school and guided on conducting these activities with children for stage specific classes.
• Parents/Volunteers may be also be guided on conducing activities related to health and well –being, art education and mental well-being with students.
• Interactive Sessions for each class and subject areas are being conducted on SWAYAM PRABHA DTH Channel. These programmes may be first watched by the teachers and they need to accordingly guide NDLD and LDLD learners in small groups.

Preparing Guidelines for Parents

• In the case of children and parents not having digital devices, it is required that guidelines for parents are developed by each school as per its context.
• For developing these guidelines, support may be provided by the DIETs and DEOs, if required.
• These guidelines be may be drawn from the Alternative Academic Calendar developed by NCERT, which includes guidelines on physical and mental health and well-being.
• Systematic parental guidance in collaboration with teachers with the help of these guidelines will further help to support young children in their learning.

Supplementary learning material (workbooks, worksheets, projects, quizzes, puzzles, etc.) delivered to homes in addition to Core learning material (textbooks)

• Children are not able to attend their regular classes due to school closure. They are not engaged in activities such as classwork, assignments, projects, educational games. With a view to engage them in a variety of activities, schools may provide them with supplementary material such as workbooks, worksheets, themes for the projects, puzzles, etc.
• Workbooks and worksheets need to be prepared by the states/UTs at their level following the guidelines of the NCERT on learning outcome-based worksheets and workbook.
• For deciding themes for project, teachers need to consider the present scenario; for each of the subject areas‟ themes related to COVID-19 may be listed to be given to children with choices. Examples of some themes are as follows–
  • Interview your parents on their experiences in COVID-19 period and make a report.
  • Interview your friends in the neighbourhood maintaining social distancing with regard to change in their routine in COVID-19 period
  • Collect information from your peers, parents and relatives on precautions they have taken in this period to prevent the spread of virus- and make a report.
  • Collect spices useful for improving immunity and make a file pasting these spices with their description.
• Mathematics and language related puzzles may be created or collected from newspapers and magazines to be provided to children at their home with proper guidance.

 School Guided Community Support

In case no teacher or school head lives in the vicinity of students, School Head can contact School Management Committee Members through phone or can have face to face meetings with a few SMC members and suggest following strategies. He/she can nominate a teacher to work with SMC to provide education in the vicinity of children‟ homes in very small groups following social distancing norms and other safety measures.

• The local offices/members of National Cadet Corps (NCC), Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and National Service Scheme (NSS) may be contacted to help the State/UT undertake this task. They may require a quick training (online) and perhaps written guidelines. They may be allocated designated areas for helping/mentoring children to continue their learning process. These members can be particularly useful for tracking and facilitating learning of students who study in residential schools (such as Navodaya Vidyalayas), but are presently at their homes.
• Interested superannuated teachers, educated volunteer parents or student teachers may be contacted and involved for contacting parents or talking directly to students in case students are in classes 4th onwards and guiding them about learning at home.
• Students who have passed out from school/college and not yet pursuing anything further can be involved for teaching young learners at places nearby their homes, contacting concerned teachers and school heads. Similarly, members of NCC, NYKS and NSS in that area can be actively involved in this activity.
• Students who do not have any gadget for educational purposes, including children of migrant labourers, (whose schools are not in the locality) will be identified by the Community and informed that they will also be contacted for providing education.
• In case children of migrant laborers are not being traced, a helpline number can be issued and also posters publicizing the need of education for all children need to posted at prominent places.
• Volunteers will make copies of weekly sets of worksheets(received by them either on WhatsApp or computer) as directed by schools.
• Volunteers will deliver worksheets at students' doorstep and guide parents/students.
• Volunteers will collect worksheets back for assessment and deliver the next set of worksheets.
• Volunteers will guide parents and siblings for providing support to the child towards his/her learning.
• Volunteers can identify children having mobiles and other gadgets and pair them with those children who do not having any gadget for online classes.
• Volunteers can create a mobile bank wherein people in the community can donate their old smart phones. These can then be distributed to NDLD learners on priority and LDLD learners on second priority.
• Community education programme-Each One-Teach One, may be studied to make use of it in the present scenario.
• School guided community support will be more appropriate for students in higher classes.

School providing education in the Community

• In case, the school teachers and heads are staying in the same area where many students who do not have any contact device are also living, the school can create a Shiksha Team with the help of community members. This Team can include teachers from different schools and volunteers for arranging safe classes in the community at open spaces.
• Members of this Shiksha Team will first identify children to be provided with education including children of migrant labour.
• Next, by ensuring adequate precaution they can make multiple copies of worksheets provided by the state/UTs and deliver these at the doorstep of children. Members of this team will also guide the parents on activities to be conducted in home by the parents.
• These Team members may visit students‟ home :
  • for delivering worksheets at the doorstep of the students with proper guidance to parents/students
  • For collecting worksheets back to assess for feedback to students and delivers next set of worksheets

Group/peer learning with the help of teachers

• Teachers can form groups of students who stay in nearby locations and are of same or different grades and different capacities and empower them to help each other and do peer learning/tutoring.
• Teachers can keep in touch with the peer group through formation of WhatsApp groups.
• Peer groups can also be encouraged to do peer assessment through rubrics prepared by the Teachers. 

TV arranged at local Community Centers

• With the help of community members, educational Television programmes viewing by set of children from same grades at different time schedules may be arranged at the Community Centre in the village.
• Tie up may be done with Citizen Service Centers located in both, rural and urban areas for internet availability so that YouTube learning resource developed by the state/UTmay be utilized. 

On the request of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, CSC E-governance Services India Ltd has agreed to collaborate for various services that would lead to learning enhancement. To access the letter indicating this collaboration, click here.

Special interventions for learning, clearing doubts, discussing hard spots, etc.

• A toll-free special helpline may be created at the community center by the state/UT with widely disseminated time schedules for learning, clearing doubts, discussing learning areas, etc. with the students.
• Several subject teachers and several hunting lines may be placed in the backend of this system as per requirements.
• Schools can nominate some volunteers and teachers to provide answers to the queries of students and parents within stipulated time.
• Local or school level helpline in collaboration with the local community can also be considered.
• If not any of the above, the state/UT must make efforts to consider any other model of support for doubt resolution of learners, particularly for the senior students (for class 6 onwards)

Mobile schools

• In case the students are spread across a large village or block and would need to travel some distance to reach the community center, a Mobile school can be arranged in a two/three/four-wheeler vehicle with a public speaking system or with pre-loaded laptops, etc.
• A volunteer or teacher along with the driver of the vehicle (wherever required)will reach to 3-4 identified location in a day for guiding students on what to study, and how to study.
• These volunteers/teachers can also play an important role in delivering resource material to children during these sessions.

Special resources/material for CWSN delivered to their homes

• Children with Special Needs, who do not have any digital device need to be given adequate attention by the schools. Identifying the location and needs of these children will be the first priority.
• Next, schools in consultation with Block Development Officer and Committee under Panchayati Raj need to procure resources needed for these children e.g., textual material in braille, audio books, sign language video, etc.
• Some special educators or need to be identified in the community who be given the roles for reaching out to the parents of these children for guidance.
• Guidelines in this regard may also be prepared for disseminating the same through television at the community center.
• If special educator is not available, then educated and willing volunteers maybe identified from the community who can become the means of communication between the special educators‟ panel identified by the state/UT and the parents/students. 

Steps to take care of mental and physical health and well-being

• Detailed guidelines for taking care of mental and physical health and well-being have been included in the Alternative Academic Calendar developed by the NCERT. These maybe carefully understood. These need to be disseminated to all the schools in states/UTs in the local language.
• Further, interactive sessions on mental health and well-being are being conducted by the NCERT under Sahyogprogramme on DTH SWAYAM PRABHA Channel. Every school in the state/UT needs to be informed through messages about this programme, for further dissemination among students. At the community level, this must be announced in the village so that many students can come to watch this programme on TV set up at the Community Centre. 

Involving the local bodies, that is, the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and their Education committees

• In many states, local bodies play a very important role for school education – their roles range from the provisioning of infrastructure/sanitation/water supply/etc. to monitoring drop outs, progress in teaching-learning and assessment, etc.
• PRIs and ULBs have their education committees which serve the schools. These bodies may help in identifying the volunteers for working with school system.
• These bodies may also help in creating required infrastructure in community center and outside for providing children opportunities for learning.
• The local bodies should be roped in for school premise and washroom sanitation and managing potable water supply.
• The local bodies can help identify the last learner and the kind of assistance needed for learning. 

Mobile Library of books

• One way of ensuring continuous learning is to ensure that children continue to read and enrich their learning process through reading textual material other than prescribed textbooks.
• States/UTs may consider mobile libraries for remote parts, where the library vehicle visits on designated days and students can borrow library books or return read books on those days.
• This activity can also be taken up through CSR efforts.

Mobile library of pre-loaded e-content

• Along with the mobile library, pre-loaded e-content can be carried on tablets/laptops for the children to view/learn from.
• The Library vehicle can stay put at one place for an hour or two, and have a toe up with the local school/authorities regarding what e-content is to be shown during their scheduled visit to a particular place.
• This activity can also be taken up through CSR efforts or by any volunteer from the local community who is ready to provide such resources on their own.

Model for Reaching out toStudents with no digital device  (In the Community through the Community)

Mentoring groups

• Local educated volunteers – drawn from senior citizens, housewives, senior students, entrepreneurs, retired teachers and other service personnel, etc. – can be allocated 8 to 10 students each, only for the purpose of mentoring.
• These mentors will help in motivating students to learn to become learners, help bring out unique potential of child through discussions, give tips for developing the skills in the learner that the Mentor is known for, promoting the cognitive growth of the students, support the overall mental health and well-being of learner, give career advice wherever possible, act as emotional supports, etc.
• Mentoring as an activity in this format can also be continued throughout the school years of the child.

Variety of Mobile and other Teaching –Learning Material for Students having no Digital Device

• Mobile Science and Mathematics Laboratories: For secondary and senior secondary stage students, school can arrange a vehicle with necessary equipment, kits, etc., to demonstrate important experiments before students. This exercise may be undertaken when the classes are going on in the community with all precautions.
• Science Box: For upper primary and higher classes, science box may be prepared for children to explore science concepts, and conduct experiments / activities / investigations at home with available resources connecting daily life experiences etc. Teachers may guide students while taking classes in the Community and Volunteers may demonstrate activities using this box. (NCERT has developed guidelines under RAA for distribution of students' Science Box for children at upper primary and secondary stages)
• Learning Resources in the hands of Students (Post Office): Learning resources, such as Exemplar Problems, Laboratory Manual, Bridge courses, material on lateral entry of students may be made available to all children at their doorstep.
• Development of Self-paced learning modules with sufficient illustrations, exercises, worksheets (with keys) need to be undertaken by SCERTs on priority.
• Bridge Course: NCERT‟s bridge course for out-of-school children may be customized for community teaching.

Source : Students’ Learning Enhancement Guidelines 2020