Quality digital content for U.P. govt primary, upper primary students soon

Now two crore children studying in schools functioning under the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board will get better digital study content

Now two crore children studying in schools functioning under the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board will get better digital study content. On the orders of the state government, Sangam city-based State Institute of Science Education (SISE), Uttar Pradesh, will soon enter into a partnership by inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with noted technical and educational institutions to develop quality digital content, said senior education department officials.

A teacher with her students at a government primary school in Prayagraj. (HT file)

“These institutions include the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur, and US-based Khan Academy,” they added. The move will help around 5.5 lakh teachers of over 1.5 lakh government-run primary and upper primary schools of the state to teach and educate around 2 crore children enrolled in these institutions in a better way, the officials said.

“The plan was discussed in detail at a meeting of the SCERT and all units held in Lucknow and chaired by director general, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand on June 19, 2022 and following which formal instructions for effective implementation of the decisions taken in the meeting were issued on June 28, 2022,” the officials said.

Director general, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand said, “We have asked SISE to prepare digital content in partnership with select well-known technical and educational institutions as we want to provide best quality of teaching at the level of primary and upper primary classes in U.P.”.

The missive, a copy of which is with HT, instructed director, SISE, U.P., Anil Bhushan Chaturvedi to finalise a blueprint for the mission and submit it to the state project office of “Samagra Shiksha”.

The officials of SISE, U.P., will visit these institutions and with their help will develop science kit and lab for the schools of Basic Education Board. They will also form a plan with these institutions to develop quality digital content.

“The plan is also to organise exposure visits for the students of government-run primary and upper primary schools to nearby renowned educational institutions and to learn by making projects besides awarding scholarships to meritorious students for which too SISE, U.P., has been asked to send a missive spelling out details so that a government order could be issued in this regard,” the officials said.

While IIT, Gandhinagar, and Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur are well-known Indian technical institutes, Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organisation created in 2008 by one Salman Khan. Khan Academy’s goal is creating a set of online tools that helps educate students.

The organisation produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and materials for educators. It has produced over 8,000 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects originally focusing on mathematics and sciences. All resources are available for free to users of the website and application.