Delhi govt launches online mathematics learning for class 9 students

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday announced an online mathematics learning programme for nearly 3 lakh class 9 students, one of the several digital initiatives

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday announced an online mathematics learning programme for nearly 3 lakh class 9 students, one of the several digital initiatives that the AAP dispensation has launched to help students continue their studies during the ongoing national lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19.

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Delhi education Minister Manish Sisodia announced the initiative during his weekly session of “parenting in the time of Corona”.

“The lockdown has no doubt affected us all. It has hampered the studies of our students and so, our education department has been trying to introduce new ways (like online classes) to reduce this impact on the studies of the students and help them cope with the loss in academic activities,” he said. Schools across the city are have been shut for more than a month.

To be run in collaboration with a non-profit organisation, Khan Academy, students would be sent links to mathematics lessons designed by Khan Academy though SMS from Monday. The links will have videos of lessons as well as activities for the students based on the topics mentioned in the lessons.

The government is already running online classes for class 12 students and activities and e-lessons for those enrolled in classes nursery to 8 in its schools to ensure continued learning during the lockdown.

Explaining the reason behind launching a mathematics programme for class 9 students, Shailendra Sharma, senior advisor to education minister, said mathematics has always been a major challenge for government school students. “Last year, when we examined the class 10 board exam results we found that while the overall pass percentage was 97%, only 71% students had passed in mathematics. Similarly, the pass percentage was 57% in mathematics in class 9. Keeping that in mind we decided to collaborate with Khan Academy that will produce online study material for our students.”

Sandeep Bapna, managing director of Khan Academy India, said it will be a 10-week-long programme. “Starting Monday, the parents will receive an SMS with a link to that day’s micro lesson. It will have two or three videos and a couple of exercises. These lessons will be sent to parents/students for 10 weeks . The purpose of the programme is to revise the syllabus of the last year and to prepare the students for the new academic year,” he said.

Khan Academy will also train 1,000 Delhi government teachers for the programme through five webinars in the coming weeks, he added. “The videos produced by Khan academy will not require high speed internet so that everyone can access it,” Bapna said.

Sisodia also took feedback of ongoing online classes from teachers, parents and students. “ I am glad to see that 1,33,193 students of Class 12 (the students of class 11 who are awaiting their results) have been registered for the online classes. Around 6 lakh students currently studying in classes nursery to 8, are also connected with us through SMS and IVR. They receive a daily exercise/assignment on their parents’ mobile phones everyday, We have also garnered a great response for the Happiness Class that is being streamed online for entire family everyday at 4 pm.” he said.

Sharing her experience of online classes, Harita Arora, a history teacher said, “We were initially apprehensive about going from real classrooms to virtual ones but the transition has been smooth. Students are fearlessly asking questions in chat boxes during online class, more than they would do in real classrooms.”

Sisodia also spoke to some parents of younger kids over phone to take feedback about the daily activities.

Harvinder Kaur, a mother of a Class 5 Delhi government student said, “The daily activities are making my child aware of a lot of general issues like water conservation. Today we got an exercise asking if we had 15 litres of water then how would we manage our household. So, I taught my child to use minimum and made him aware about how to conserve water,” she said.