Here's how NIOS students can study amid COVID-19 Lockdown through MHRD's digital portal SWAYAM

MHRD has been taking steps in providing necessary lessons to the students through online portals amid the lockdown due to novel Coronavirus. NIOS has made content available for all the students in secondary and senior secondary classes on the ‘SWAYAM’ portal of MHRD.

With exams being postponed and schools and institutions being shut, children missing out on their education has become a cause of concern for the parents and the teachers, in the wake of Coronavirus which is spreading like wildfire in India. For the same, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has been working to make sure that the students cope up with this situation. The MHRD has been working in and out on various projects through which quality education could be reached through various means of communication to all the schools for the last 5 years.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the three organisations under MHRD, are collaborating to pool up all the resources to make the academic content reach school-level learners across India who are pursuing education through CBSE, NIOS or any other schools boards of the country.

For the same, NIOS has made the content available for all the students in secondary and senior secondary classes on the ‘SWAYAM’ portal of MHRD. Students can access the same at www.swayam.gov.in/nios. As many as 50,000 new registrations were received after the Prime Minister had announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown, as per MHRD's official data.

Learners will be able to log in to study courses of their choices and also watch related videos and listen to audios as well. The portal also provides them with online tests. They will also be able to raise queries and teachers will be available to answer them. Another initiative taken by NIOS is the running of four DTH TV channels on the SwayamPrabha bouquet of channels. Channel 27 Panini is dedicated to NIOS 10^th, while Channel 28 Sharda is dedicated to NIOS 12^th and Channel 30 Gyanamrit to sign language. There is also a live interactive class channel namely Channel 32 Vagda. Overseen by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, National Institute of Open Schooling has ensured quality content for school education and management content quality.

Check out the official notification released by NIOS:

For the last two years, NIOS had been conducting live interactions with the teachers, but from this year, it plans to expand the same to students. Students will also be able to ask questions and get answers. Anita Karwal, chairperson, CBSE, is coordinating with all the three organisations to make available online classes to all school children across the nation, as it has become the need of the hour.

After the situation in the country is back to normal, all the boards, including the NIOS will be conducting examinations while giving sufficient time to prepare. The evaluation will be done as quickly as possible and the results will also be declared at the earliest possible time so as to give students ample time to apply for higher studies. The Higher Educational Institutions will also extend their admission deadline, so students must not be anxious as to what and how will things happen next.

NIOS Chairman, Chandra Bhushan Sharma said that they don’t want teachers to start preparing lessons to teach over the internet as it is a technical job for which they do not have prior training. “They should concentrate on providing counselling and remedial lessons online in small groups. They should ask their students to log in to the online material, which has been prepared by expert teachers and media professionals,” he further said. He also said that it has been made compulsory for all cable operators to carry DD channels. “This will be a great service to the approximately 25 crore school-level learners in the country,” the Chairman said.

Moreover, through the ‘DIKSHA’ portal, CBSE will give academic lessons in various Indian languages for different levels. The material has been divided into two major areas- for teachers and students.

Check the complete schedule for SWAYAM below:

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