In an attempt to enhance online education and keep a track on its implementation, the state education department has directed school and junior college teachers to submit weekly reports with details such as the number of students attending online class, phone calls made to students or home visits if any to those who are not connected via online mode. Teachers have opposed this direction stating they cannot provide details as they are burdened with additional work because of the shift to virtual classes and remote teaching due to lockdown in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Teachers of state-run schools said the school should send the required data to the state government instead of burdening them with extra work. A teacher from a Kurla school said, "We are trying innovative ways to develop softwares and create new teaching-learning methods on a regular basis via online mode. This process takes additional time because both students and teaching faculty are new to the process."
The teacher further said, "We are already submitting regular reports to our respective school heads. Schools can submit a comprehensive report to the state government instead of adding to the workload of teachers."
As per the Government Resolution (GR) dated September 24, teachers of schools and junior colleges have to submit weekly reports on the covid19.scertmaha.ac.in portal. A senior officer of the state education department said, "We want to collect data regarding efforts taken by teachers to reach students. Teachers are the first point of contact for online education. Also, some students do not have access to online learning so we want to identify and find out innovative ways to reach such students."
Rajesh Pandya, a senior teacher and vice-president of Teachers Democratic Front (TDF) said, "We have not received systematic training for conducting online classes from the state government. The government should focus on providing training so that we can reach out to more students rather than increasing the workload of teachers."
