Edu dept connects with officials via videoconferencing
The state education department has begun using video conferencing
from 20th Spet. to connect with its officials in all talukas, deputy directorates
in every district, 48 block resource centres, the state board and its eight divisions.
The facility was launched by minister for school education Rajendra Darda who spoke
to eight school education departments at the same time. He also spoke with the chairman
of the state board Ujjwaladevi Patil and reviewed the SSC and HSC examinations set
to begin from September 29 and discussed matters pertaining to the curriculum.
The network connects 448 centres in the state which would help conduct training
sessions for thousands of teachers, hearings, meetings with education officials
and also seek instant feedback on various education schemes from places in talukas.
The Rs. 19-crore project will also be used as an e-learning facility for students
in rural areas. Darda told TOI on Wednesday that it would help the decision making
process.
Hundreds of officials from the department work in places all over the state. For
any decisions, discussions regarding policies, changes in school education, these
officials have to travel to either Mumbai or Pune. The meetings last for 15-20 minutes,
but officials travel for two days from far-off places. To save time and energy,
the department has decided to connect with them through video conferencing, the
minister said.
It would save travel time for trainers who train school teachers. It would cut down
travel expenses and facilitate the process. Now, with video conferencing, we can
decide on a suitable day and time, ask all teachers to report to the block resource
centre in each taluka where the facility has been provided and conduct the training.
Hundreds of teachers could be trained in this way, Darda said.
At present, the concentration is on communicating decisions to educational officers
and directors, inviting queries and complaints, seeking feedback, discussing issues
and other administrative work. The second phase will see a series of training sessions,
while the third phase of the project will look at extending this facility to students.
We want to run the current plan well before moving to the teachers training programme
through video conferencing in the third phase. We will provide e-learning facilities
to students, later. We are speaking to experts who run virtual classrooms and those
who make e-learning software, Darda said.
Courtesy: Times of India
