Schools in Telangana asked to conduct online classes with restricted screen timings

Hyderabad: The Directorate of School Education (DSE) has prescribed restricted screen timings for the students attending online classes from September 1. The detailed proceedings issued on Tuesday said that the maximum screen time for the kindergarten, nursery, playschool, pre-school shall be a maximum of 45 minutes per day and classes should be conducted only for three days in a week. Similarly, for students of Class 1 to 5, only two sessions, each of 30 to 45 minutes are allowed per day for five days in a week.

Classes for the 6 to 8 standard students will also be held only for five days, comprising three sessions each of 30 to 45 minutes. The maximum screen time allowed is two hours in a day.

Students from Classes 9 to 12 will have classes of four sessions in a day, each of 30 to 45 minutes. A total of classes in a week are restricted to five days.

To address the issue of digital divide and accessibility, the guidelines have come up with three categories of students. Those who could access Doordarshan channels and T-SAT, students with access to smartphones mobiles and laptops, computers with or without an internet connection. The third category is those students who do not have any of the above two.

The school headmasters and teachers are asked to come up with a resources accessibility mapping of the students and an outreach planning about how to reach them.

As part of making digital learning available, the schools are asked to take the help of local village Panchayat and other local government institutions. Besides, students can be paired based on the resources available among them.

The assessment of students would be based o three levels of the worksheets developed by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SERT).

Further, the schools are asked to rope in the village Panchayats for the cleanliness, sanisation and maintenance of washrooms and proper functioning of the drinking water facilities.

On their part, the DEOs and MEOs are asked to coordinate with the DTH service providers to ensure students will have uninterrupted viewing of T-SAT and Doordarshan channels. Also, the electricity department is also asked to provide uninterrupted power supply to prevent any disruption in the online schedule of classes. 

Screen timing for students

♥ KG, nursery and play school: Maximum of 45 minutes per day for three days a week

♥ Class 1 to 5: Only two sessions in a day, each of 30 to 45 minutes for five days in a week

♥ Class 6 to 8: Three sessions, each of 30 to 45 minutes per day for five days in a week

♥ Classes 9 to 12: four sessions in a day; each of 30 to 45 minutes for five days in a week