School Education Department to run pilots for online classes

Seven days after the state government issued guidelines for virtual classes and physical reopening of schools next month, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Monday, directed the School Education Department to start pilot projects for online classes. He saw a demonstration on how to conduct online classes given by Jio TV and Google Meet and interacted with the students.

Thackeray, who met School Education Department Minister Varsha Gaikwad, asked the department to invite suggestions from selected principals, teachers and legislators, representing the teaching community, on virtual classes.

CM directed the department to put in place a system to address student grievances.

Gaikwad informed that Jio TV has launched two channels for Standard 10 and Standard 12 lessons, while it has proposed five channels from Standard 1 to Standard 12.

According to the government’s notification for online classes, Standard 3 to Standard 5 have been allowed a screentime of one hour, Standard 5 to Standard 8 for two hours, and Standard 9 to Standard 12 for three hours. School Management Committees (SMCs), along with local administration, will be allowed to decide whether schools should be physically reopened.

Further, schools are expected to begin online admissions through Google forms, conduct online meetings with SMCs, ensure textbook distribution, create econtent and promote Diksha app. Gaikwad informed that Standard 12 results will be declared by July 15 and Standard 10 results will be declared by July end. She said 97 per cent answer sheets were submitted by the examiners and their scanning was currently underway. According to the minister, the admission process for Standard 11 will be conducted for one and a half months. For online admission, the registration of colleges will begin from July 1.