Schools to upload COVID response on common platform

With physical classes for students of Classes 9 to 12 commencing from Wednesday, all High and Higher secondary schools were expected to be instructed to update their COVID-19 preparedness levels in Educational Management Information System (EMIS), a common online platform connecting schools and government. This is expected to help identify gaps concerning safety and preparedness at schools in conducting classes during the pandemic.

Stating that the EMIS is the digital backbone of the School Education Department wherein the information of every school, teacher, and student in State-run schools are maintained on a real-time basis, a senior official from the School Education Department said: “During the pandemic, when schools were opened for high schools and higher secondary schools for two months, every school updated their COVID preparedness levels by filling up a questionnaire every day through the EMIS mobile application.

He said the details of students affected due to COVID will also be captured through the health profile of children. “An Initial Learning Level Assessment (ILLA) is also expected to be conducted for each student through hi-tech labs available in High and Higher Secondary schools to assess gaps in learning for each student,” he added.

Pointing out that over 13 lakh students are expected to undergo assessment in each subject, the official said, “the learning level of students in each class will be assessed and displayed to teachers through EMIS so that efforts could be taken by teachers to address gaps”.

He claimed that in a major digital transformation initiative, ICT training for all teachers will also be carried out entirely online through EMIS from September 6. “Systems have been set up with the existing ICT infrastructure in High and Higher Secondary Schools and software developed by EMIS to track training registration, daily attendance, and assessment of each teacher attending the training at their respective venues,” he said.

Stating that this was the first of its kind training is a primer for training that can be centrally administered to bridge gaps and shortcomings that were experienced in the existing cascading model of training, he said: “A live dashboard showing details of the training will be available for administrators to monitor attendance and completion of assessments”.

“A monitoring application is being developed exclusively for the administrative cadre to carry out inspections and monitor all aspects of School Education,” he said adding “administrators will be trained in the usage of the application and this will be used during their inspections and school visits”.