Sikkim all set to start homeschooling for elementary education

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GANGTOK | JULY 15, 2020:

Amid the outbreak of coronavirus, the Sikkim government on Wednesday has decided to start home-schooling for students from Kindergarten to class 8 in the state.

Bhim Thatal, Director (elementary education) said that even if the schools are reopened in the coming months, we do not have any plans for the schooling of elementary level.

He said Home-schooling would mean that if the child is not able to come to school, let the school go to the child. The concept of home-schooling would include elementary teachers visiting the homes of such students and teaching the students.

The students at home should have access to education through teachers, parents, School Management Committee members and such other stakeholders coming together and supporting the education of the children at home.

Medium and resources like digital media, online classes, voluntary support from the youths and D.EI.Ed /B.Ed students and various other means are required to be harnessed. Child centric learning and change of method to adapt to the needs of the students is required. Parenting component is also an important factor of home-schooling.

Below are the guidelines issued by the Education Department on July 14, 2020, for home-schooling in Sikkim during the lockdown period:

Home-schooling will cater to the educational needs of students from class Kindergarten to class Eight as per the provisions of the Right of the Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

There will be three levels of approach for home-schooling (i) for KG (ii) for Classes 1 to 5 and (iii) for 6 to 8 with different strategies to cater to their educational needs.

Surveying and mapping physical locations of students and teachers will be done by the Block and Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (BRCCs & CRCCs) to locate students and teachers along with any other individual (D El Ed, BEd, college students, educated youths) willing and capable to cater to the educational needs of our students. Heads of Institutions should formulate strategies and map challenges. The HoIs will monitor, help and support the teachers in making learning happen effectively.

Teachers will have the liberty to adopt innovative and possible mediums of teaching and as far as practicable, personal attention will be provided to the primary learners. However, for the students of Classes 6 to 8, a combination of digital learning and personal attention will be adopted.

Pre-Primary Teachers, Primary Teachers, Graduate Teachers, BRCCs, CRCCs will be engaged for this purpose at different levels. Active participation of the stakeholder's School Management Committee members, Public Representatives, parents, elder students, educated youths, D.El.Ed students in the locality will be there in home-schooling.

Methods like meeting at suitable places other than school, visiting homes of students or calling the students to the homes of teachers with abundant precaution against viral infection, maintaining social distancing and other COVID-19 protocol would be adopted.

Curriculum slash and prioritization of learning at different levels will be analysed by the teachers. Essentially important contents as expected for a child at a given grade would be incorporated in the remaining part of the academic curriculum in line with the revised NCERT calendar and with the support of the SCERT.

Teachers of the government schools will also extend support to students of private schools.