MHRD issues guidelines for Online classes, recommends to reduce screen time for Nursery to 12

The MHRD has released guidelines for schools conducting online classes. The guidelines recommended that classes for pre-primary school students should not be conducted for more than 30 minutes.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has released a set of guidelines to be followed by schools conducting online classes. The guidelines have recommended a cap on the duration and number of classes to be conducted for students in a day. The move comes after several parents raised concerns that the schools are conducting online classes like regular schools, which has lead to increased hours of children's screen time. Schools have started conducting online classes after they were shut in mid-march due to coronavirus outbreak in the country. 

The guidelines have been titled as "Pragyata". As per the guidelines, the MHRD has recommended that the online classes for pre-primary school students should not be conducted for more than 30 minutes. For Classes 1 to 8, the HRD Ministry has recommended that two online sessions of up to 45 minutes. For classes 9 to 12, four sessions of 30-45 minutes duration shall be conducted.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has led to closure of schools and has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled in schools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic, schools will not only have to remodel and reimagine the way teaching and learning have happened so far but will also need to introduce a suitable method of delivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling at school," HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank said.

He said that the guidelines have been curated keeping in mind the online education that is been imparted for the students who are currently at home.

"The guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online, blended, digital education for students who are presently at home due to the lockdown. These guidelines on digital education provide a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education," Nishank added.

Read the Guidelines for Digital Education 'Pragyata' here

Since March 16, schools, Universities and other educational institutions across the country have been closed, when the Centre announced a countrywide shutdown of classrooms as a preventive measure to contain the coronavirus outbreak.  A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has largely eased restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

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