Odisha Shiksha Sanjog Programme to Engage Students in Learning amid Lockdown

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government is mulling to introduce ‘Odisha Shiksha Sanjog’ programme, in which WhatsApp groups will be created to stay in touch with students and ‘engage them in teaching learning process’ during the closure of schools amid COVID-19 lockdown.

Learning materials will be provided to school students through WhatsApp groups under the programme.

Taking cues from ‘Shiksha Sanjog’ programme, which is already running in Khordha District, the State Government has decided to implement such a programme in all other districts in the name ‘Odisha Shiksha Sanjog’.

OSEPA (Odisha School Education Programme Authority) Project Director Bhupendra Singh Poonia has issued a letter to all District Education Officers (DEOs) in this regard.

“Dissemination of teaching-learning material through WhatsApp group at different levels is one of the methods of Online Teaching. One such programme namely ‘Shiksha Sanjog’ is already running in Khordha District from 19th April, 2020. It has been decided to implement such a programme in all other districts of the state in the name ‘Odisha Shiksha Sanjog’,” the letter said.

It has been suggested to form WhatsApp groups at different levels starting from DEO to students for sharing the following materials:

• PDF of chapters of textbooks available in OSEPA website.
• Question bank (containing questions of different values, i.e.3 mark, 2 mark, 1 marks etc) model answers/answer keys.
• Teaching material for each lesson/period consisting of lesson content worksheet and answer key.
• Written explanation prepared by teachers, video recordings or audios clips prepared by teachers, video lessons/ animation videos available in Madhu App, Diksha Portal or other similar sites/digital platform may be used as lesson content.
• Worksheets of Ujjwal and Utthan for elementary classes.
“It is important to note that all the WhatsApp groups formed for this programme are used for the purpose of teaching and learning only and the ethics of social media must be strictly followed,” the letter added.