Cap duration, daily sessions of online classes: Ministry of Human Resource Development guidelines

The Ministry of Human Resources Development on Tuesday recommended limiting the duration and the number of sessions of online classes during a day in schools, amid complaints from parents that children are exposed to more screen time and concerns that it will have an adverse impact on them.

The MHRD felt that online interaction with pre-primary students should not be more than 30 minutes. Online classes for students in Class I to VIII should be limited to two sessions with a duration of 30-45 minutes each in a day.

For students between classes IX to XII, according to 'Pragyata: Guidelines for Digital Education', the online learning could be undertaken for not more than four sessions of 30-45 minutes each.

"Do not make adoption of digital learning burdensome for students and their parents. Avoid setting unrealistic goals for students as well as yourself," it said.

Amid reports of several students not able to attend online classes, the report suggested that schools should consider conducting an informal survey to identify facilities available at home for each child.

The guidelines come against the backdrop of Covid-19 leading to the closure of schools since March 16 and impacting around 24 crore children who are enrolled in educational institutions. According to the Unlock 2.0 guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the schools and colleges are closed till July 31 and a decision on opening them will be taken towards the month's end.

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"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," the guidelines said.

However, it said schools should not assume that teaching-learning through synchronous communication is the only requirement or even desirable in order to support effective digital learning.

"The goal is not to try and recreate face-to-face (F2F) classrooms over the internet. Anytime, anywhere, online and blended learning provide opportunities for learners to work more independently, expand their agency, intellectual horizon, learn to use tools and strategies that otherwise may not be feasible in classrooms for teaching-learning and assessment," it warned.

It asked school heads not to expect that the teachers be engaged in six to eight hours of online teaching in a day. Teachers could be engaged for about two to three hours of online activities per day for the classes they teach but they should continuously "explore, create and share" learning resources with their students and parents.

"Do not rush for the sake of completing the syllabus, rather focus on the consolidation of learning. Plan the interventions keeping in mind students’ level, age, resource availability, nature of content etc," it said.

The report warned that children exposed to digital technologies/gadgets for a longer time are prone to severe health issues. "Hence seating with digital gadgets for longer hours or their excess use can be avoided by designing age appropriate schedules of digital education,"it said.