Jharkhand to launch two apps to provide classroom-like education experience to students

In a bid to provide classroom-like education experience at home and reduce educational loss due to lockdowns, Jharkhand school education and literacy (SEL) department is all set to launch two educational applications for students of class 1 to class 12 on December 3, officials said.

The first app namely Learnytic will be dedicated for the students of class 9 to class 12, while another app namely Digischool for students of class 1 to class 8.

Schools are shut across Jharkhand for past seven months due to Covid pandemic triggered lockdowns. Officials in the education department have doubts of smooth functioning of the schools this academic session.

Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) tried for conditional re-opening of the schools at least for students of class 9 to class 12 but it didn’t work yet. Therefore, the department conceptualized the App based method of education for students.

JEPC director Shailesh Chourasia said, “The app for class 9 to class 12 contains e-book, regular syllabus, revised syllabus, digital content, video and animation contents, model questions papers and their answers. It’s a complete package. We are trying to give a classroom education kind of experience to students through the application.”

He said many contents have been provided in presentations format so that students could grab it easily. “Videos and animations have also been used to make students understand the topics better,” he said.

The app also provides the facility of performance test. “Hordes of question sets are available there. If students fail to solve any question, the app will guide them how to solve it and which topic they should go through for this,” Chourasia said.

The Digischool app would provide similar kinds of facilities for students from class 1 to class 6. The school teachers and parents would be trained regarding the use of the application, as students of these classes may not know the use of application, officials said.

The apps were designed to benefit more than 40 lakh students studying in 35,000 government schools across the state. However, as per the estimation of the JEPC, merely 30% students from class 1 to class 12 have access to the android phones in the Jharkhand. The figure would be around 45% for students from class 9 to class 12. Moreover, regular and quality internet connectivity especially in the rural pockets is a perennial problem in the state.

Chourasia said that they were trying for every possible facility to reduce the educational loss caused during lockdowns. “The students, who would not be able to use the facility for now, would be guided by the school teachers. The teachers have been asked to help students through phone calls or other possible methods,” he said.

However, students would have to register themselves to avail the facilities of the app. The education department through district education officers (DEO) has asked all schools principals and teachers to ensure registrations of students from class 9 to class 12 by December 3.