Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, KK Sharma, today launched Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) and VidyaDaan portals-cum-App in Jammu and Kashmir.
Principal Secretary, School Education Department, Dr. Asgar Samoon, also attended the event via video conferencing from Srinagar.
Among others, Commissioner Secretary Higher Education, Talat Parvez; Chairperson J&KBOSE, Prof Veena Pandita; Director School Education Jammu, Dr. Anuradha Gupta; Director School Education Kashmir, Younis Malik and Project Director Samagra Shiksha Dr. Arun Manhas were also present.
Pertinently, DIKSHA portal enables, accelerates and amplifies solutions in realm of teacher education. It aids teachers to learn and train themselves and create training content, in-class resources and connect with the larger teacher community.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor Sharma said that Department of School Education is taking several innovative initiatives to improve the quality of teaching as well as learning in J&K. He added that due to the spread of COVID-19, education of students has suffered everywhere and traditional ways of teaching and learning are being rapidly augmented with online methods. It is the right time and opportunity to strengthen the e-learning content for school education on DIKSHA and leverage its potential used by all students and teachers, he said.
He urged the educators and learners to download such applications and make best use of it.
The Advisor reiterated that this program is a call to individuals, organizations, schools (private and Govt), and NGO’s across the JK to contribute e-learning resources in the education domain to ensure that quality learning continues for learners across the Union territory of J&K during this unprecedented situation attributed to COVID-19 pandemic.
“VidyaDaan will be rolled out in a phased manner in J&K, initially we invite all government school teachers to contribute and subsequently it will be open to all private school teachers, NGOs and independent content creation organizations as well,” he added.
Principal Secretary, while briefing about these apps, stated that DIKSHA platform offers e- learning material relevant to the prescribed school curriculum. “Teachers will have access to aids like lesson plans, worksheets and activities, to create enjoyable classroom experiences. Students can have better understanding of concepts, revise lessons and practice exercises,” he said.
Dr. Samoon added that VidyaDaan programme brings together academicians and organizations to develop and contribute fun and engaging e-learning content aligned to the curriculum.
Later, Dr. Arun Manhas, informed that department aims to leverage DIKSHA, as a platform for teaching community to create and exchange e-resources as a result to bring about qualitative changes in teaching learning process. He added that a Resource Group of 140 Subject Matter Experts, who are actively working on DIKSHA, has been formed and they have been given training of digital content creation and usage of DIKSHA portal. These resource person are creating digital content which shall be uploaded on the portal and subsequently linked to JKBOSE textbooks, he added.