In a bid to ensure continuity in learning for students and enhance the teaching capabilities of educators, the Maharashtra Government in partnership with Google on Thursday launched a project in the state. The project, which aims to make education accessible to all, will enable 2.3 crore students and teachers to access blended learning programmes that combine classroom approach with online learning including free tools like G Suite for Education, Google Classroom, Google Meet, and more to facilitate remote learning.
Under the partnership, the Department of School Education will provide individual educators and students with their own G Suite ID to ensure every student whether in a private school in Mumbai or in a remote village in the Sahyadris can experience continuity in learning. The project was launched through a video conference by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Minister of School Education Varsha Gaikwad.
Gaikwad told Free Press Journal, ‘’ Google for Education solutions will help teachers provide excellent educational experiences and enable students to learn better by nurturing individual needs. Each solution has been designed to be easy to use, flexible, and scalable. They are built for collaboration, secure by design, and will now be available for free to scores of teachers and students across the state.’’ She informed that earlier this month, the state government rolled out a survey asking teachers to register for the first batch of training programmes and out of 7 lakh educators, Google received 1.50 lakh sign-ups in less than 48 hours.
Google India Country Head and Vice President Sanjay Gupta said the partnership builds upon a commitment to create useful tools that make information accessible over the internet so that teachers and students continue to benefit from it.
Gaikwad informed that G Suite for Education includes Gmail, Docs, and Drive and Classroom which help enable learning anywhere, anytime, and on a range of devices. Google Classroom will help educators to easily create, review, and organise assignments as well as communicate directly with students in the classrooms or while distance learning.
According to the minister, Google Forms is a simple question and response tool that allows educators to fill out or import questions to quickly create quizzes and tests.
