As kids return, Delhi govt schools to focus on well-being over syllabus for first 2 weeks

Students from nursery to Class VIII will be returning to schools on Monday after an almost two-year gap, which was only shortly broken in November 2021. Government run and aided schools have been explicitly instructed to not jump into teaching the syllabus as the focus should be on “integrating the students to the school environment” and helping them “get ready emotionally and functionally for learning”.

Schools have been asked to plan the number of students they will call on any given day — depending on space — and class teachers have been asked to talk to those students and their parents who were called to school on a given day but did not attend.

One of the most important activities in these two weeks will be one-on-one reading and numeracy assessments, on the basis of which teaching and learning activities will be planned. “Please note that this process of assessment is not just for recording the learning level but also an opportunity for the teacher to have one on one conversation with their students. Thus, apart from administering the tools, the teachers should also talk to their students about their family, any special circumstances at home to see how the child could be further supported,” the education department’s directive read.

Apart from these assessments, classroom activities will include Happiness Curriculum sessions, story reading and writing, and discussions on the worksheets that students have been made to solve over the last few months.

Schools have also been asked to invite parents on February 21 for the International Mother Tongue Day to “acknowledge their role as partners in children’s learning during the last two years”.