The Delhi government said on Monday that it has initiated dialogue with key stakeholders — students, parents, teachers and principals — for school education in post Covid induced lockdown.

Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said that for decades, schools had a set pattern, standardised classes, timings and a way of functioning, but these need to be reimagined now due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“We have faced challenges in the past, the difference this time is that the entire world is facing it together. Soon we will learn to live with coronavirus. Slowly things will open up and so will the schools, however, this also means that new ideas of learning will have to be scripted,” Sisodia said.

Sisodia , the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, launched a dialogue with the students, teachers, parents and principals about the future of schools in Delhi.

“In the coming week, the Education Minister will be inviting key stakeholders from all over Delhi for suggestions and inputs that the Delhi government should implement once the schools reopen,” the Education Department said.

As a first step to initiate this dialogue, an online suggestion form has been put on the website of the Directorate of Education — www (dot) edudel (dot) nic (dot) in.

“Students, teachers, principals and parents can give their inputs. Respondents submitting practical and out of the box suggestions will be invited to share their thoughts with the Education Minister of Delhi through an online platform,” the Education Department added.

The dialogue sessions, it said, will be centered on how each stakeholder views the challenges and opportunities created by the Covid-19 situation, constraints which are likely to be faced in times to come and steps that are needed to be taken from now onwards to create an education set up that ensures equitable quality learning and well-being of all children in the post lockdown phase.

During the lockdown, Delhi government took a number of initiatives to support the learning and well-being of the children at home. It also engaged parents in these initiatives. These included — Mission Buniyad classes and Happiness Classes for children till Class VIII; online mathematics classes for Class IX students in collaboration with Khan Academy; live online classes in 11 subjects for students likely to join Class XII this year; English and personality development classes for Class X and XII students in collaboration with the British Council and MacMillian Education.

From Monday, the summer break in schools in the national capital started. The break will continue till June 30.