New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal virtually launched Tuesday the ‘India Report on Digital Education, 2020’. The report elaborates on the innovative methods adopted by Ministry of HRD, Education Departments of States and Union Territories (UTs)for ensuring accessible and inclusive education to children at home and reducing learning gaps.
The report mentions some states that had pioneered Whatsapp as a medium for education and to encourage teachers, parents, and students to stay connected. The report mentions and appreciates Odisha’s Shiksha Sanjog Programme – a Whatsapp based digital learning programme launched by the Odisha government. It shares e-content with classes in a streamlined manner.
The state government had implemented the Siksha Sanjog Programme across Odisha to provide online education to students through WhatsApp during lockdown. The programme is an extended version of the Siksha Sanjog initiative launched on a pilot basis in Khurda district after announcement of the lockdown.
As per the programme the teachers have to create individual WhatsApp groups with students of different classes both at secondary as well as elementary level for sharing study materials. The students from class II to X can participate in the programme. The e-content like written and video explanations, audio and video clips, etc are collected from different digital platforms and are also developed by teachers. Those are shared in the class-wise WhatsApp groups constituted for the programme.