Andhra Pradesh school education body chief urges parents to admit wards in governmentt schools

Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APSERMC) Chairman Justice R Kantha Rao has taken exception to private educational institutions forcing parents — by sending SMSes or WhatsApp —  to pay fee for conducting online classes.

Addressing a press conference at Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) office here on Wednesday, Justice Rao said several parents are not in a position to pay the school fee for their children. Already many schools have started sending messages to the parents for payment of transportation fee and others though the academic year is yet to be completed due to lockdown.

Stating that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is spending crores of rupees under the Nadu-Nedu scheme to improve educational standards in the State, he said, "I suggest those parents not in a position to pay fee in private schools can join their children in government schools."

The APSERMC chief opined that conducting online classes is not an effective mode of teaching, since several students do not have access to mobile phones and laptops. "We suggested the government to go for conventional method of teaching as online teaching is only a temporary alternative. It is effective for students of higher classes. Steps should be taken by the educational institutions to reduce the number of students in each class from the next academic year," he said.

Proposals are also under consideration to introduce classes on ‘honesty and integrity’, especially on curbing corruption.

The APSERMC chairman said, "Unnecessary ruckus is being created by some educational institutions regarding a notification issued to gather details about available infrastructure, teachers and others. A section of managements has even approached the judiciary. They are circulating false propaganda against the commission. They have the right to approach the judiciary, but the commission’s intention is to improve the educational standards in schools and there is no intention to cause any inconvenience to the institutions."

Commenting on the State government’s initiative to introduce English medium, Justice Rao said the court has stalled the GO issued by the government. Around 97 per cent of the parents in the State have given their go-ahead for introduction of English medium for primary classes.

He refuted the allegation that volunteers are forcing the parents to give their consent for English medium education. Responding to a query that the Board of Intermediate Education is providing recognition for the colleges online without inspecting the infrastructure available, he said the matter will be discussed with the officials concerned. 

Decade of progress in tackling pupil disadvantage 'wiped out'

Nearly 10 years of progress in narrowing the attainment gap in England between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates has probably been “wiped in a few months” due to the coronavirus pandemic, a study has found.

Analysis by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) charity said the closure of schools to most pupils 10 weeks ago was likely to reverse all progress made to close the gap since 2011.

Responding to the findings, Russell Hobby, the chief executive of Teach First, a charity that aims to address educational disadvantage in England and Wales, said urgent action was needed to tackle the problem.

“It’s devastating that children from poorer backgrounds risk having their education interrupted by this pandemic,” he said. “Nearly 10 years of progress in narrowing the gap wiped in a few months is tragic.”

Over the past decade the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates at the end of primary school in England is estimated to have narrowed from 11.5 months in 2009 to 9.2 months in 2019, according to the Education Policy Institute. However, the EEF fears that progress made since 2011 will now be lost.

The EEF analysis, published on Wednesday, said its median estimate was that the attainment gap could widen by 36% but that “plausible estimates” indicated it could widen by between 11% and 75%.

The findings mirror thinking among senior figures in the Department for Education. In May, Vicki Stewart, the deputy director of the DfE’s pupil premium and school food division, said the pandemic would  “almost certainly” have “a very significant impact” on the attainment gap, pointing to predictions of it widening by 75%.

The EEF said urgent and sustained support would be needed to help disadvantaged pupils catch up but that the damage would already have been done “even if the strongest possible mitigatory steps are put in place”.

Schools across the UK were ordered to close on 20 March – more than 10 weeks ago – to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers. Some primary schools in England reopened on Monday to further reception, year one and year six pupils but others have said it remains unsafe to open to additional students.

Hobby said the government must pump more resources and funding towards the schools and pupils “who have suffered the most” to rectify the harm done.

The EEF analysis said it was “highly unlikely” that a single or short-term catch-up strategy would be sufficient to compensate for lost learning.

The EEF chief executive, Prof Becky Francis, said: “The evidence is clear that children learn less when they are not in school. Our analysis today highlights that this particularly impacts those from disadvantaged backgrounds and widens the attainment gap.”

The EEF, Sutton Trust, Impetus and Nesta have been in talks with the government over plans for a national tutoring pilot.

The charities said on Wednesday they would offer high-quality tuition to up to 1,600 pupils in disadvantaged communities over coming weeks, supporting schools as they opened for more pupils.

IGNOU opens admissions for 10 new online programmes, adds 24 SWAYAM courses

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has announced admissions for 10 new online programmes making a total of 13 online programmes on offer. The university has also added another 24 courses on the SWAYAM portal making the total number to 45 courses.

The courses includes Agricultural, Sustainability Sciences, Library and Information Science, Sociology, Law, Tourism, Languages, Information Technology, Event Management And Visual Art.

These programmes will be available on e-Vidya Bharti (Tele-education) platform as well for the International reach. Aspirants can register through IGNOU online portal at iop.ignouonline.ac.in or through the Samarth portal for at https://ignouiop.samarth.edu.in/index.php/registration/user/register.

For the SWAYAM course, candidates will have to register on the SWAYAM Portal at swayam.gov.in/ignou.

Professor Nageshwar Rao, vice chancellor of IGNOU while sharing the details of the new online programmes said that this is in continuation to the university’s efforts towards the MHRD’s “Bharat Padhe Online” initiative. Professor Rao thanked the HRD Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” who has been a staunch advocate of online education.