Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has come out with teaching and learning activity guidelines as the students of Class I to VII are gearing up to attend school after a gap of almost two years. The guidelines include a week-long rapport building exercise.
The exercise would take place after the reopening of schools at the elementary level. This is aimed at creating a stress-free and enjoyable learning environment for schoolchildren.
“As the children have not attended the schools for long, their emotional well-being needs to be taken care of by creating a happy learning environment in schools,” said School and Mass Education Secretary Bishnupada Sethi was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
Teachers would prepare a fixed timetable focusing on rapport-building exercises, which will include open discussions for sharing good memories during the pandemic, hobbies, how children felt, and what were their activities during the school closure period.
The exercise will also include word puzzles, story-telling, painting, clay modelling, crafts, and other co-curricular activities. Besides the rapport-building exercise, the schools would do a baseline assessment in Odia, Math, and English subjects of children from Class I to V. The assessment would be done from March 9 to 11 to gauge the learning status and loss of the children.
A large-scale campaign would be organised by the school management committees and other field functionaries of the department at the village level to ensure 100 per cent attendance in schools on the reopening day.
The schools will also organise parent-teacher meetings on February 26 to discuss with parents and guardians about their role and responsibilities towards schools and the academic progress of their children as well.
