KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 19
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has started a pilot project from today to provide free internet and communication services to students and teachers of community schools, with support from Nepal Telecom in a bid to give continuity to classes through online platforms during the pandemic.
The government’s recent move is followed by the Student Learning Facilitation Guideline-2020 endorsed by the ministry on September 4. The guideline envisions the roles of ministries, local governments, and community schools in facilitating teaching-learning activities in community schools.
As per the recent initiative, schools can now create a ‘Close User Group’ of students and teachers where teachers and students can interact without having to pay anything. For this, each student is required to provide his/her mobile number. If a family has more than one child, all the children can get this service with the same number.
Similarly, students are also allowed free access up to five giga bytes while using the website of the Centre for Education and Human Resource Development.
Students, however, cannot access any other sites or apps other than those identified by the government.
Students can also contact their classmates directly through phone calls or SMS without having to pay any money for limited calls. Similarly, teachers can have unlimited access to phone calls and bulk SMS for their students as they are required to keep in constant touch with their students.
Authorities claim, this service will be helpful in providing homework, keeping in touch with students and monitoring student’s progress.
Baikuntha Prashad Aryal, director general of CEHRD said, “A separate group of teachers, students and guardians will be made where teachers can communicate for free for unlimited time while students can access their curriculum from the free websites of the government.”
Further, he added that guardians could call their teachers at a very nominal price if they have to talk to the teachers regarding students academic progress.
The CEHRD claimed that this system could be effective tool for virtual learning.
This system was introduced after the parents did not show any interest in paying Rs 99 monthly for the same service.
The government has estimated that around Rs 1.5 billion will be spent for the pilot project which has now been introduced for three months.
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