Over 27% students have no access to gadgets for online classes: NCERT

Agencies
August 20, 2020

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New Delhi, Aug 20: At least 27 per cent students do not have access to smartphones or laptops to attend online classes, while 28 per cent students and parents believe intermittent or lack of electricity is one of the major concerns hindering teaching-learning, according to a survey by the NCERT.

The survey with over 34,000 participants, including students, parents, teachers and school principals from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodyaya Vidyalas and CBSE affiliated schools, has pointed out that lack of knowledge of using devices for effective educational purposes and teachers not being well-versed with online teaching methodologies, caused hindrance in the learning process.

"Approximately 27 per cent of the students mentioned the non-availability of smartphones and laptops. The maximum number of stakeholders have opted for mobile phones as a medium for teaching-learning during the Covid-19 period," the survey by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said.

"About 36 per cent of the students used the textbooks and other books available with them. Laptops were the second most favoured option amongst teachers and principals. Television and radio were the least utilized devices for the teaching-learning in the pandemic situation. The absence of enriched interaction between the teacher and the students was one of the reasons as identified by the stakeholders," it added.

The survey noted that almost all of the responsive states use physical (non-digital) mechanisms to track the progress of learners with the majority of them either practising home visit by teachers or systematic parental guidance via phone calls.

"About half of the students stated that they did not have the school textbooks. Although the e-textbooks are available on NCERT website and DIKSHA, the probable reasons behind this feedback are that students are used to studying from the hardcopy of the textbooks, there is lack of awareness regarding the availability of the e-textbook and paucity of devices with students and teachers," it said.

The majority of the stakeholders pointed out that mathematics as a subject was difficult to learn via online medium.

"Since, mathematics contains a number of concepts which require interaction, continuous support, monitoring from the teacher and these aspects were lacking in the online mode of teaching.

"Next to Mathematics, Science was identified as the subject of concern since it contains several concepts and practical experiments which could only be done in the laboratory under the supervision of the teacher. A few stakeholders also found Social Science as a difficult subject to grasp through online classes," the survey said.

It said that around 17 pc of students identified languages as being a difficult subject to learn through online medium.

"Many students and parents felt the need for Physical Education classes through online mode, as physical fitness is the need of the hour to combat this pandemic. Arts education can help to reduce stress and boredom. Around 10 per cent of the stakeholders mentioned art education as a subject of concern," the survey said.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shut down as part of measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

A nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25. While several restrictions have been eased, schools and colleges continue to be closed.

The prolonged closure of educational institutions has mandated a shift from classroom teaching to online learning.

Based on the NCERT survey findings, the Ministry of Education has formulated Students' Learning Enhancement Guidelines.

"The guidelines will help children, who do not have digital resources to get learning opportunities at their homes, with their teachers or volunteers. Apart from this, it will also help in our efforts to overcome the learning deficiencies of all those students who are learning at home through various alternative ways using radio, television or smartphone," Union Minister of Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said.

The minister informed that the guidelines and models are suggested for three types of situations.

"Firstly, in which students do not have any digital resources. Secondly, in which students have limited digital resources available. Lastly, in which students have digital resources available for online education," he said. 

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News Network
November 21,2024

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Hamas says the Israeli regime’s sole objective lies in “erasing” the entirety of the Palestinian population from across the Palestinian territories.

Khalil al-Hayya, a ranking official with the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement, made the remarks to the Palestinian al-Aqsa TV on Wednesday.

“The occupation targets everyone—it strikes hospitals, civil defense, women, children, and the elderly,” he said, adding that the regime sought to “empty Gaza of its residents, and displace the Palestinian people to fulfill its dreams of building a Zionist Jewish state across all of Palestine.”

The remarks came amid the regime’s October 2023-present war of genocide on the coastal sliver that has so far claimed the lives of nearly 44,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

“This unprecedented aggression in modern times evokes scenes from the dark ages of human history, having crossed all red lines and exceeded every expectation of brutality in the modern era,” the Palestinian official lamented.

He also regretted that the regime had added “systematic and dangerous starvation to its aggression, falsely claiming before the world that it allows 250 [aid] trucks into Gaza daily. In reality, the number of trucks is far fewer.”

Hayya, meanwhile, regretted that “scenes of children torn apart, women screaming over their children, and heart-wrenching destruction have failed to stir enough humanity to stop these crimes.”

He decried the United States for vetoing the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions that are aimed at bringing about a potential ceasefire in the war, saying this indicated Washington’s “partnership in the aggression” and a simultaneous siege that the Israeli regime has been enforcing on Gaza.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official asserted that, despite what the Israeli official is after, Hamas would not hand over the regime’s captives “without [the regime’s] stopping the war.”

He called Netanyahu “the main obstacle” in the way of cessation of the aggression, saying the Israeli premier “blocks any progress for political reasons,” and citing his preventing conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in July.

Hayya also warned that the regime sought to expand the war beyond Gaza, but asserted that its goals are “impossible and will never happen.”

“Today, the enemy exposes its true intentions of extermination and displacement, but it will fail,” he stressed.

“The Palestinian people are resilient and will not surrender, as they believe in their humanitarian and political cause. The enemy and its allies will not succeed in achieving their goals. This steadfast people will endure, and the occupation will not prevail against them.”

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News Network
November 29,2024

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New DelhiI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Sambhal Shahi Jama Masjid committee to approach the Allahabad High Court and told the district court not to act until then upon a survey ordered on a claim of the mosque having built on a pre-existing temple.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar directed Uttar Pradesh to maintain peace and harmony in the area, where four protesters were killed during the heavy stone pelting. The court also ordered the survey report of the advocate commissioner's report should be kept in sealed cover.

"We don't want anything to happen in the meanwhile...Let them (Shahi Jama Masjid committee) exercise appropriate remedies. We will keep this pending," the bench said.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for plaintiff Hari Shankar Jain and others submitted the next date of hearing has been fixed for January 8 before the civil judge (senior division).

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioner committee, contended the order is capable of great public mischief. He said as of 10 such suits are pending across the country where the survey is sought to be conducted.

"We hope and trust the trial court will not take any proceedings...We have not expressed any opinion on merits," the bench said, fixing the matter for consideration in the week commencing on January 6.

In case any revision application is filed, it should be heard within three days before the High Court, the bench ordered.

At the outset, the bench said it had some reservations with the order passed by the Civil Judge (senior division) on November 19.

The court told the Uttar Pradesh government represented by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj that the district administration has to remain neutral and maintain peace in the area.

The court directed the plaintiff not to file any papers.

It also ordered the advocate commissioner's report should be kept in a sealed cover.

The petitioner committee questioned the validity of the survey ordered within a short period, triggering violence in the area and leading to the death of four protestors.

The plea filed by the Committee of Management, Shahi Jama Masjid, Sambhal claimed "the hot haste" in which the survey was allowed and conducted all within a day and suddenly another survey was conducted after a couple of days with a notice of barely six hours that had given rise to widespread communal tensions and threatened the secular and democratic fabric of the nation.

The survey was ordered by a civil judge (senior division) on a suit filed by advocate Hari Shankar Jain and others.

According to the plaintiffs, Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi was built by Mughal emperor Babar in 1526 after demolishing the Shri Harihar temple.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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