Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested a mix of online and offline learning in schools in order to ensure that students are not "overexposed" to technology, reported The Indian Express.
Modi's suggestion came at a high-level meeting organised on Saturday, 7 May, to review the progress made on the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020.
The PM also suggested that databases maintained by anganwadi centres be synced with those provided by schools so that students can seamlessly move from pre-primary to class 1.
The PM added that there has been a rise in the usage of online, open and multimodal learning and platforms like "SWAYAM, DIKSHA, SWAYAM PRABHA, Virtual Labs and other online resource portals have all seen sharp rise in the hits and student registrations."
Focus on Distance Learning
Other initiatives being taken up at the school level, such as quality ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) in Balavatika, NIPUN Bharat, Vidya Parvesh, examination reforms and innovative pedagogies like Art-Integrated Education, toy-based pedagogy, were discussed at the meeting.
On the higher education front, the PM said that the "UGC has notified Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online Programmes Regulations under which 59 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) are offering 351 full-fledged Online programmes and 86 HEIs are offering 1081 ODL programmes. The permissible limit of online content in a programme has also been raised to 40 per cent."
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