Telangana government schools to go online from September 1

The Telangana government has decided to conduct online classes for government and private schools starting from September 1. The preparation to begin online classes are underway with principals, headmasters and teachers attending schools to prepare lesson plans and e-content for classes.

As per the guidelines, e-learning content is being made available on Doordarshan, T-SAT network and the internet by the state government. Meanwhile, headmasters from schools in remote villages have been directed to categorise and identify the number of school children based on the availability of TV, smartphones, internet connectivity or laptop at their homes.

Headmasters of various government schools and Telangana State United Teachers Federation (TSUTF) General Secretary Chava Ravi had earlier brought to the notice of the government that a survey conducted in July reported that 39.6 per cent families didn’t have smartphones, and 14.8 per cent families did not have even a cable TV connection.

Rajasekhar Gaddam, Gazetted Headmaster of Zila Parishad High School, Thanikella, Khammam District told DC that currently only 20 per cent of his students have smart phones with internet connections and about 50 per cent of them can access learning materials on TV in their households. “For others, with the help of gram panchayats, we are trying to set up community centres for TV transmissions of lessons for students.” He however added that even setting up of gram panchayats was getting difficult due to lack of funds from the government.

Thotamalla Rama, headmaster of Zilla Parishad Secondary School, Sarapaka, added that they are trying to identify students with access to internet and TV connections and are guiding students and parents about the time-table to be followed for the upcoming classes. She added that some teachers will be visiting students who don’t have access to mobile phones physically to guide them with learning process.

As the Telangana government has instructed all teachers to start attending school, around 1.32 lakh teachers in the state will be resuming work soon. It is also estimated that there are around 24 lakh school children in the state.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

Read: Telangana survey on online classes: 39.6% families don’t have smartphones

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