SRINAGAR — In Kashmir valley, COVID-19 has left a huge learning gap among the school students at different levels, officials said on Thursday.
The Directorate of School Education at Kashmir division has said, “Pandemic and lockdowns have reduced the offline interactions of students and teachers to a greater extent resulting in learning gaps among children.”
According to the official communiqué issued by Director of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) on Thursday said, “It has also posed certain mental health challenges in students which are badly telling upon their education and development.”
The communiqué states that during the pandemic, the department has endeavored to reach out and engage students and teachers from the day one of pandemic through different online interventions to continue their education and maintain a sound mental health.
“The government of India and Jammu and Kashmir has time to time made available different digital repositories of e-content and other digital resources to help students and teachers to continue their education and take benefit of these facilities,” it reads.
DSEK suggests that “Online education and e-learning content has become the order of the day and our students and teachers must take benefit for excellence in learning. This will help in bettering the learning outcomes among the students.”
The department directed Chief Education Officers, Principal District Institute of Education and Trainings (DIETs), Head of the Institutions, Zonal Education Officers (ZEOs) to encourage students and teachers to access and use the digital resources and e-learning content from the repositories keeping all the cyber safety and security measures in consideration.
The repositories include DIKSHA, (Digital Infrastructure for School Education), Energized Text Books (ETB), e-pathshala, National Digital Library of India (NDL) OLABS, Swayam Prabha, National Repository of Open Educational Resource (NROER), e-Learning content on JKSCERT website and e-Learning content on DSEK website. — (KNO)