New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has called for participation of school children and young teachers in the fight against Covid-19 by spreading awareness about the pandemic.
The board has sought the participation of students in a programme called ‘Young Warrior’, which was launched in association with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and UNICEF’s youth consortium YuWaah. The programme seeks to engage 50 lakh young people in the fight against the pandemic.
“Students and teachers aged between 10 and 30 years should participate in the movement to help in creating awareness about the pandemic”, said CBSE, in a statement released Friday.
This comes a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made an appeal to children to actively participate in raising awareness about the pandemic, just as they had done with the government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
In his address on 21 April, PM Modi had called children ‘baal mitra’ and had asked them to take the initiative to ensure that no one stepped out of their households.
The CBSE statement on the ‘Young Warrior’ initiative, meanwhile, noted: “All School leaders are requested to encourage – any student and/or teacher between the ages 10 and 30 years of age to join this movement, and safeguard themselves, their families, their communities, and the country.”
Students will be given UNICEF certificates for the task they complete under this movement.
The participants will have to promote access to verified health and essential services, vaccine registration, Covid appropriate behaviours, myth busting among other things. The tasks will be assigned to them either through phone, WhatsApp or community radio.
Students can register on WhatsApp by typing YWA and sending it to +91 96504 14141 or they could give a missed call to 080-66019225, the board said.
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No clarity on Class 12 board exams
While CBSE has sought students’ participation in the fight against the pandemic, the board has been silent on the fate of the Class 12 board exams.
There have been several petitions and posts on social media by students of Class 12, urging the government to cancel the exams in wake of the raging pandemic. However, there has been no response on the matter by either the CBSE or the education ministry.
ThePrint reached CBSE spokesperson Rama Sharma for a comment via text messages, but received no response till the publishing of this report.
In an earlier statement in April, the board had said that the situation will be reviewed on 1 June regarding the status of Class 12 board exams.
The Ministry of Education, in a meeting Monday, also urged all the state governments to submit their recommendations about the exams. The government is likely to take a call after receiving suggestions from the states.
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