In a bid to reach out to the students during the Covid-19 crisis and thereafter, Maharashtra Government proposes to introduce in a big way a slew of initiatives including study from home, loudspeaker school, community blackboards, conference calls, education through volunteers and study from phone calls. This is in addition to online learning and classroom teaching.
State education department officer told the Free Press Journal this is going to be a new normal especially because of the number of restrictions on the admission of students per division and availability of physical infrastructure. These new innovative proposals were discussed at the maiden meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday to discuss the state government’s preparedness to implement New Education Policy announced recently by the Centre.
‘’In rural areas where the reach of technology is weak the teachers will attend students at their houses following social distancing and other precautionary rules. Loudspeakers will be sought from panchayats and local communities for teaching using appropriate pedagogy. As far as community blackboards, the display boards at corners of streets owned by Youth Mandals institutions, gram panchayat and municipal corporations will be used by teachers to display daily activities and study programmes,’’ the officer said. He further informed that with the help of educated youngsters, students can study at their villages at home.
He said during the present Covid 19 crisis, teachers teach through phone calls. ‘’For interactive teaching of students, the state government gives free G suite education to all students. Daily Smart PDF titled Learning from Home were prepared and broadcasted through Whatsapp by the teachers. This can be continued post Covid 19 crisis also,’’ he noted.
Moreover, the government has launched Balrakshak Chalval for migrated and out of the school students. This aims to adopt such students back to education mainstream Balrakshak Chalval has been initiated to identify and provide educational support and aid.
