This is based on an initiative of the Department of State Education Research & Training (DSERT) and will be introduced in the current academic year itself.
BENGALURU: For the first time, textbooks supplied by the state government for Classes 6 to 10 will have QR codes to enable students, teachers and parents to download the study material digitally. This is based on an initiative of the Department of State Education Research & Training (DSERT) and will be introduced in the current academic year itself.
The QR codes will appear on textbooks of Mathematics, Science and English to begin with, to help students go the extra mile to refer to additional material to understand the subject better. Initially, the QR codes will be printed only in English and Kannada (medium), but subsequently, textbooks in all languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Marathi, will have these QR code scanning facilities.
For this to work, a mobile phone application, named Diksha, has been developed by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), which will help scan the QR code.
Students have to just scan the QR code printed on the textbooks using their phones on which they have downloaded the mobile application. Once the student scans the particular code, the mobile app will take them to more information on the subject.
DSERT officials said this will include audio and video study material and not just reading reference material. The mobile application will be available for teachers, students and parents.
They explained that by downloading the app, teachers can make use of this in the classrooms to show video content of that particular subject or chapter.
The officials said this was part of upgrading the textbooks. The department has already upgraded Mathematics, Science and English textbooks to NCERT syllabus during 2017-18 academic year. This year, students of Classes 6 to 10, who are following the NCERT syllabus, can use this application.