By Manjima Dhakal
Kathmandu, Apr. 22: In the wake of extended lockdown, a number of educational organisations and software developers have drawn the attention of guardians and schools who are in search of e-learning materials to teach children digitally.
Deerwalk Learning Centre, a software developer in Kathmandu, has made about 1,800 videos based on Nepal government-set curriculum and getting explored now. The center made the virtual classes from Grade IV to XI that are available free of cost. Anyone interested can find them freely online on its website https://dlc.dwit.edu.np/, mobile application, DLCMobile and even offline.
Though it developed the materials about a year ago, it has gained popularity and recorded high demand this year, Hitesh Karki, academic officer of the Deerwalk Information Technology College, said.
Likewise, a mobile application named E-Pustakalaya and its website https://pustakalaya.org has also become popular among all school level students and their guardians. It provides Nepali and English teaching-learning materials from Grade I to Grade X students. Besides, it also gives guidelines for teachers, professional development materials for teachers and literature and arts for all.
Similarly, Grade IX and X virtual class of all compulsory subjects is available in https://www.youtube.com/ncedvirtual and Grade VI-VIII English, Maths, Science classes available

in https://moest.himalayantechies.com, both prepared by the government.
Similarly, E-Paath has developed Grade I to Grade VIII virtual materials which are available in  https://pustakalaya.org/epaath/, children's stories and games are available in https://egr.pustakalaya.org/, children's books mainly related to stories, poems and other materials are available in https://pustakalaya.org/balpaathmala/.
These are only some examples. Along with these, lots of materials are available online targeted to Nepali students.
Besides these Nepal-based virtual reading materials, enough materials are available even in English medium too.
Sirjana Panta, mother of a Grade IV student, said her son started to learn from his mobile after she installed many reading materials and finally that changed her assumption that mobile does not support the study of children.
Educationist Bidhya Nath Koirala said though children can learn well even from gadgets the guardians unnecessarily chide them without knowing that. Therefore, this is the right time to change our teaching methods.
Dr. Tulsi Thapaliya, director general of Centre for Education and Human Resource Development, said with a target to help children keep learning from home the government had been boosting virtual materials from its side too. Besides steering education from recorded materials the government has been planning for systematic online classes as well as distance education.