– Mita Mukherjee

The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) on Monday directed schools affiliated with it to put a cap on the duration and number of online classes held in a day as recommended in the digital education guidelines of the Centre.

 According to the Pragyata guidelines of the ministry of education of the Centre, which the council wants the schools to follow,  not more than four sessions of 30 to 45 minutes may be undertaken each day for classes IX to XII .

For classes I to VIII not more than two online sessions of 30 to 45 minutes each can be held in a day. For  pre-primary classes schools can interact with parents for not more than 30 minutes in a day, according to the circular issued by CISCE to heads of all its affiliated schools.

In the  circular , the CISCE council further recommended that there should be a break of 10 to 15 minutes after each session if more than one class is held in a day.

One of the main objectives of the Pragyata guidelines which was released by the Union ministry of education in July was to place a cap on the duration and number of classes on a single day to ensure the mental and physical health of students who are at home since mid-March when the schools had shut down for Covid-19 pandemic, the principal of an ICSE school in Kolkata said.

At the same time the guidelines also aim at ensuring imparting quality education through the online teaching and learning sessions.

The CISCE circular to the schools today said that “students should be instructed not to use any electronic gadgets nor view the screen of their laptop /mobile phone for any purpose but to be freely moving about or doing some physical exercise.”

“ It may be noted that no student should be compelled to keep the webcam on or smart phone in online mode except during online class hours or for instruction/s at  a particular time, having duly been informed beforehand.”

The CISCE further requested the schools to provide guidelines and counseling to students to make them aware about cyber safety and security.

Also read:

Bengaluru online classes: Govt to monitor school hours

Free online classes for Maharashtra FYJC students from Nov 2