Nagaland’s education initiative amidst Covid-19 wins international accolade

Dimapur, June 27 (EMN): Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation Education (OEDCE) has recognised and highlighted Nagaland’s initiative of tele/online education programme during Covid-19 pandemic terming it as “affordable and effective remote learning”.

“Learning from international education responses to the crises, the Indian state of Nagaland was quick to react to school closures, creating lessons to broadcast on radio and television as well as on the internet, crowd sourcing the content from local teachers and educators,” a PIB statement quoted OEDCE’s report adding, “encouraging community participation helped ensure the response was cost–effective and right for local context”.

Tele/ online education programme was initiated by the directorate of School Education, Nagaland, to support the learning of public school students and make-up for the loss of instructional days due to school closures resulting from Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first-phase of the programme, TV and Radio education was offered through Doordarshan Kendra Kohima and All India Radio Kohima, while in the second-phase the programme expanded to digital content distribution through a dedicated YouTube channel.

According to OECD Education and Skills Today, information from around the world on education responses to the crises were gathered combining the expertise of Harvard Global Education Innovation initiative, the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and the World Bank Group Education Global Practice.

The report stated the novel coronavirus pandemic is a stress test for education systems around the world. With hundreds of millions of learners forced to stay home; education policymakers are working to ensure that classes continue, and that the most vulnerable don’t get left behind. With many different approaches being taken by countries worldwide, the coronavirus crises is an opportunity for policymakers to learn from each other and co-operate to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, the report added.

Principal Director of School Education, Shanavas C said, “such article from international organisation is motivating and inspires us to do more.”

He said the department is conducting a survey from all the schools asking them the numbers of how many students are able to use the digital education and how many are not able to do it.

“Once we have the data wherever we are lacking, we’ll find some alternative solutions for them. The ultimate aim is to cover each and every child in Nagaland, the administrator added.