state board syllabus as well as CBSE and ICSE curriculum can be availed; the Maharashtra government issues a notification in this regard
Students who take admission will be provided login IDs to attend the zoom classes. Representation pic
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has opened up its online education facility to all students across the state for free. Now any student from Maharashtra will be able to take admission to the online education service by the civic body, take lessons through zoom class; learn through YouTube videos and also get a certificate after evaluation. The idea is to make quality education available for all those across the state who are missing out on education amid the pandemic. The BMC offers such online education service in the state board syllabus as well as CBSE and ICSE curriculum.
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Maharashtra issued a notification in this regard on Thursday evening. Parents will be able to take admissions for this facility through BMC's official website. Once registered, admissions will be approved and students will be provided login IDs to attend the zoom classes. However, the YouTube videos are available for all irrespective of approval. The services are available for Stds I to X and in four mediums – Marathi, English, Hindi and Urdu.
"It is important to note this is an opportunity for all needy students across Maharashtra who are facing academic loss in this pandemic. This admission is to attend online lessons and take part in online evaluation methods for which a certificate of completion and attendance will be provided to those students. This is not like a regular school admission," clarified Mahesh Palkar, BMC Education Officer.
Read: 'By year end, many kids will be thrown out of education system'
"A total of 396 teachers have been selected for this work where each teacher has to work on one lesson once a week or in 15 days. This is apart from his/her regular classes at the BMC school that he/she is attached to. Apart from this there is a team of 40 persons which is working on operating channels and other administrative work related to this," said Palkar. Admissions for these state-wide classes have to be approved by the BMC which will be done on a first come first serve basis.
Teachers not paid for SSC, HSC evaluations
It has been almost two months since the SSC and HSC results were declared but teachers are yet to be paid for the evaluation process. While teachers claim that due to the pandemic they took extra effort to evaluate the answer-sheets and also spent money to send them to the state board authorities, the latter says shortage of staff is leading to delay in disbursing payments. The evaluation for both state board exams started quite late this year due to the COVID-19 situation and even the SSC Geography paper, which was scheduled in March, had to be cancelled at the last moment.
Rajesh Pandya from Teachers' Democratic Front, said, "This year the process was not a usual one. Teachers were allowed to take answer-sheets home. They have definitely put in extra effort to evaluate the answer-sheets. At many places teachers have also paid from their pockets for transporting the papers. The least the authorities can do is disburse the payments soon." Each teacher gets around Rs 1,200-Rs 1,500 for evaluating each answer sheet and Rs 200 as travel allowance.
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