Union HRD Minister launched Alternative Academic Calendar for the upper primary stage

Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released the alternative academic calendars at the upper primary stage (Classes VI to VIII) on 23 April. The calendars were developed by the NCERT under the guidance of the MHRD. 

Aim:
The move by the government is to engage students meaningfully during their stay at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic through educational activities at home with the help of their parents and teacher. The Calendar will empower the students, teachers, school principals, and parents to find out positive ways to deal with COVID-19 using on-line teaching-learning resources and also improving their learning outcomes by getting school education at home.

New Academic Calendar:
♦ The Calendar will provide guidelines to the teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learners, parents, and teachers even while at home. 
♦ The varying levels of access to such tools like Mobile, Radio, Television, SMS, and various social media were taken into account. 
♦ The calendar guides teachers to further guide parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice calls.
♦ The calendar holds a week-wise plan. It consists of interesting and challenging activities including various themes or chapters taken from syllabus or textbook. The themes and the learning outcomes are mapped to facilitate teachers/parents to assess the progress in the learning of children and also to go beyond textbooks. 
♦ It will cover experiential learning activities such as Arts Education, Physical Exercises, yoga, pre-vocational skills, etc. 
♦ The Calendar contains class-wise and subject-wise activities related to four languages as subject areas namely Hindi English, Urdu, and Sanskrit in tabular forms. 
♦ The calendar includes a link for Chapter wise e-content available on the e-pathshala, NROER, and DIKSHA portal of GoI.
♦ The calendar also reduces stress and anxiety among teachers, students, and parents. 
♦ The Alternative Academic Calendar for the primary stage has been released by the Union HRD Minister on 16th April 2020. The remaining classes, that is, IX to XII and subject areas, will be covered under this calendar.