Kathmandu - This weekly report follows after two weeks of gap after March 11-17, 2020 (Falgun 28-Chaitra 4, 2076) report. Those two weeks no specific news on education was reported due to the lockdown cause by the Pandemic to prevent spread of Corona Virus. Very few relatable reports were related to school buildings being use as quarantine zones for Covid-19. Publications have reduced the size of its news published while Kantipur daily stopped its publication for about a week.

This week as well only three news in total where related to education even though Kantipur daily has started publishing daily newspaper. One news was reported in THT and 2 news reports in Kantipur daily. Other publications weren’t available at current situation. Two of the news was related about the announcement by Education Ministry about possible announcement of SEE exams post lockdown and about the possibility of SEE and +2 exams happening at same dates. Two of the news reports discussed about the continued learning through innovative approaches by students, teachers and parents through digital mediums, virtual social media and exchange through phone calls.

-    Prior to the second extension of the lockdown, MoEST had announced that SEE would follow soon after the end of lockdown stating students to stay prepared for SEE exam but to not panic about it. The announcement got invalid after the second extension of lockdown.

-    Another news reported National Exam Board’s announcement that SEE exam and class 12 exams would be conducted together. Board representative stated that exams of two different levels could be conducted in different time of the same day. The representatives stated that it could make it feasible to use same exam center for both the exams.

-    Two different news also reported about continuation of learning exchange through virtual medium among students and teachers. It also stated that students were using social media, virtual chat groups and phone network to consult with teachers and peers to discuss about course subjects to continue their studies. Most of the learning reported in the report was related to the exam preparation. Teachers were reported of using schools blog for contents related to specific subjects and using group chat applications like zoom. The news report stated that Teacher’s Federation was also engaged in promoting teachers to be innovative to support students in this state of crisis. Teacher’s Federation also stated that they have provided subject based help desk in all province. Contact details of 35 teachers were made public by the teacher’s federation to consult on specific subjects. MoEST representative stated that exam preparation materials where made available through website, video streaming sites like youtube, applications, and on television for students to continue education while staying at home.

Education experts where reported stating that the lockdown has brought a new turn in approach to learning in the country. Lockdown has made the society realize the capacity and innovative approaches that can be taken in education through the use of already available technologies. The expert also stated to ensure that the continuation of use of technology would bring new dimensions in learning approach in the country in all level of education. With creative efforts to ask contextual question, exam can also be conducted through virtual medium stated the report. Education and Human Resource Development Center was reported to be preparing for additional educational materials to support virtual classes.

-    Another report stated that with innovative approaches being taken at this lockdown state learning applications are turning into mini schools, keeping students engaged during lockdown. A separate facebook page created by students for SEE preparation where model questions were uploaded and discussed between peers was also discussed. Students reported that they were taking online courses from different learning websites and applications that students have searched themselves. MiDas an e-learning local app stated that there was a massive surge of 80,000 students interested to join online and app courses right after declaration of lockdown. Another innovative teacher assistance model by Karkhana also reported that 30 school teachers from different cities are being trained on digital teaching through online workshops. The report stated MiDas, Karkhana as well as Max Connect are offering digital learning resources for free during the lockdown.

The consideration of self-learning possibilities, peer to peer based learning methods and trust relation between teachers and students has been reshuffled by the uncertainties of lockdown. Particularly the unexplored approaches and methodologies of distance learning have been brought to fore front by this situation. Though distance learning has been made available for a long time by the government, it also exposed how neglected and unprepared the nation was for students unable to attend schools physically or students who would prefer distance medium approach to school education in regular basis. It would be worth considering efforts by the civil society and the media to ensure this realization and innovation approaches taken by schools, teachers, students and the government continues even after the lockdown ends.  

'Education this Week' is a joint effort put to analyze the press coverage of education in Nepal’s selected print media published in Kathmandu. The main aim of this effort is to identify and explain major education issues picked up by the media and give back and foreground of the news. This, we believe, will help policy makers and other responsible people to keep abreast with ongoing concerns and discussions on and around education. EduKhabar, in collaboration with the Center for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP) , has produced this analysis based on the news printed in Kantipur (Nepali) and The Himalayan Times (English), Dailies between April 1-7, 2020 (Chaitra 19-25, 2076) - Editor.

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