New Delhi: In order to engage students meaningfully during their stay at home due to COVID-19 through educational activities at home with the help of their parents and teachers, the NCERT has developed alternative academic calendars for students, parents and teachers for all the classes I-XII.

Alternative Academic Calendar (AAC) for four weeks and next eight weeks for primary and upper primary stages had already been released. Now, AAC for next eight weeks for the secondary stage has been released by the Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ virtually today.

Pokhriyal said that the Calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learner, parents and teachers even while at home. However, it has taken into account, the varying levels of access to such tools-Mobile phone, Radio, Television, SMS and various social media.

NCERT has already started having live interactive sessions with students, parents and teachers through the TV channel Swayam Prabha (Kishore munch)( available through Free DTH channel 128, Dish TV Channel # 950, SunDirect #793, Jio TV, Tatasky #756, Airtel Channel #440, Videocon Channel # 477), Kishore Manch App(can be downloaded from play store)  and youtube live (NCERT Official Channel). Daily Monday to Saturday, every class from I-X gets one-hour live session in a week in a time slot of 2.00-4.00 PM.

For classes XI and XII, the weekly duration for live sessions is two hours for each class. In addition to interacting with the viewer, hands on activities along with teaching of topics are demonstrated in these live sessions. Features of AAC had been disseminated through video conferencing with SCERTs/SIEs, Directorates of Education, Kendriya Vidyalay Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and CBSE. This calendar for eight weeks for the secondary stage is placed on NCERT website for dissemination across the states/UTs.