Jamshedpur, April 7: Similar on the lines of private schools in the state, government schools have also started preparing to connect students on social media tools like Whatsapp.
The department of school education and literacy has asked various district education officers (DEO) and district superintendents of education (DSE) to ask school teachers make Whatsapp groups to connect students and make them get access to academic content. Department officials said that they have already prepared learning content for classes IX to XII and content preparation for other classes is in process.
� It is not clear when the lockdown is going to end so we are not going to waste further time and have asked schools to connect with students and provide content so that they can study at home.
Amrendra Pratap Singh, principal secretary of school education and literacy department,has issued directives asking teachers to make Whatsapp groups with students who have smartphones and upload learning content every day. Academic sessions of government schools were supposed to start from April 1.
District education department officials have been asked to create teachers Whatsapp group to keep them connected about the syllabus. Teachers therefore will have to make a Whatsapp group of students to let them access the departmental e content.
The department wants the faculty and academic staff to utilise the �work from home� period for development of online content, online teaching and online evaluation, development of lesson plans and instructional material.
Virtual classes will not be same as regular classes, but they will be used to explain basic concepts and once the schools reopen, the lessons can be revised. �We are thinking of using the online platform to complement the classroom teaching hereafter as teachers and students get used to online classes,� said a teacher.