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 alternative academic calendars for students, parents and teachers at primary and the upper primary stage has been developed by the NCERT under the guidance of the MHRD.

The calendar will empower our students, teachers, school principals and parents to find out positive ways to deal with Covid-19 using on-line teaching-learning resources and also improving their learning outcomes getting school education at home. The calendar at upper primary stage (Classes VI to VIII) was released for four weeks. Now the calendar for the next eight weeks at upper primary stage has been released. 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.

It has taken into account, the varying levels of access to such tools-Mobile phone, Radio, Television, SMS and various social media. The fact that many of us may not have internet facility in the mobile phone, or may not be able to use different social media tools- such as WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter, google, etc., the calendar guides teachers to further help parents and students through SMS on mobile phones or through voice call. Parents are expected to help elementary stage students to implement this Calendar.

This calendar will cater to the need of all children including Divyang children(Children with Special Need)- link for Audiobooks, Radio programmes, Video programme will be included.

The calendar contains week-wise plan consisting of interesting and challenging activities, with reference to theme/chapter taken from syllabus or textbook. Most importantly, it maps the themes with the learning outcomes. The purpose of mapping of themes with learning outcomes is to facilitate teachers/parents to assess the progress in the learning of children and also to go beyond textbooks. The activities given in the calendar focus on learning outcomes and can thus be achieved through any resource including the textbooks children are using in their state or UT.

This calendar also gives space to the strategies of reducing stress and anxiety among teachers, students and parents. The calendar includes a link for Chapter wise e-content available on the e-pathshala, NROER and DIKSHA portal of GoI.

NCERT has already started having live interactive sessions with students, parents and teachers through the TV channel SwayamPrabha (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 these sessions are telecast for secondary 9:00 am to 10:30 am, for primary classes from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm, for upper primary classes from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm and higher secondary classes from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm.

NCERT Link: Calendar