THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a first in the state, all the school textbooks will turn smart from the coming academic year with Quick Response (QR) codes on pages to enable students, teachers and parents to download the study material digitally through smartphones. A QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode used for providing easy access to information through a smartphone or camera.
As part of the first step, the QR codes will be integrated in the books of Classes IX and X and later it will be implemented in other classes. SCERT officers expressed hope the initiative will benefit students of schools running with inexperienced or no teachers in some subjects. Sources in SCERT said reprinting of textbooks is underway to attach QR codes and it will be ready before the coming academic year. “All the students of Classes IX and X will benefit by this system. Since the curriculum has been revised, QR codes are the need of the hour in textbooks”, a top SCERT officer told Express.
The system has already been implemented in states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. A Shahjahan, General Education Secretary, said the new system would help students understand the subject very well. “The system will be implemented from the coming academic year. So students will get the opportunity to study more about the subject,” he said.
In this system, teachers and students have to just scan the QR code using their phones in which they have downloaded the mobile application. Once the student scans the code, the mobile app will take them to sources containing more information on the subject. To enable this, a mobile phone application named Diksha has been developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which will help scan the QR code.
DIKSHA, which stands for Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing, is a national platform which hosts open educational resources and teacher-related information. School teachers said the integration of the new system would help students refer to additional content to understand the subjects better.
“QR codes will be printed on books identified by teachers. These codes can be linked to engaging videos and interactive content to better equip teachers, and provide students with the same content. Students will be able to use the information from home as well,” said K Jayakumar, a school teacher.