Mumbai: As Coronavirus outbreak has forced schools and educational institutes to remain shut, almost all private schools have decided to resume school sessions virtually. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials have decided to train its teachers to teach online and not let civic school students lag behind.
BMC's education department has decided to start its academic year from June 15, students can attend school via online classes. Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Monday inaugurated a three-day online training course webinar on the online learning-teaching process organised by the BMC's education department.
Civic Education Officer Mahesh Palkar said that online admission is being given in BMC schools so that students can avail admission to civic-run schools without coming to school this year. "The school won't reopen at least for now due to the coronavirus crisis, so from June 15, it has been decided to train teachers to teach students online. This training will be given through Diksha App. Through this app, training will be imparted to teachers of BMC schools of Eastern Suburbs on June 8, Western Suburbs on June 9 and Mumbai City on June 10," added Palkar.
Mayor Pednekar said, "The BMC schools will be ready to start the new academic year by 15 June. The curriculum will be taught to over 1.5 lakh students available online through BMC. The Balbharti textbooks are available on the Diksha app. According to our Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray, the aim of imparting education will be achieved only when grassroots students are connected to the online stream and we at BMC are working on to achieve this," the mayor said.
Anjali Naik, Chairperson of the Education Committee, Sheetal Mhatre, Chairperson of the Legislation Committee and corporator of Dahisar, Joint Municipal Commissioner (Education) Ashutosh Salil, BMC Education Officer Mahesh Palkar as well as all Deputy Education Officers and teachers from the eastern suburbs participated in the webinar on June 8.
"The main objective of the training is to provide counselling to all the teaching staff to deal with new challenging situations, technical skills suitable for all teachers to carry out online learning effectively. present curriculum to the students with the help of Animation, presentation, video clips etc. How to prepare all this etc. The aim is also to provide a great online learning experience to the civic school students through Zoom, Google Meet, Google Chrome, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, Hangouts etc." Pednekar said.
Expert guides from Sterlite Air - India Foundation provided guidance on various online and web tools and equipment required for online training.
