Old Balchitravani bldg to house e-Balbharati wing

Pune: The education department has started renovating the building that earlier housed the Balchitravani team to turn it into a separate wing of e-Balbharati, which will produce e-learning content in tandem with the syllabus created by the Vidya Parishad for all state board schools from Std I to XII.
Most textbooks produced by Balbharati, the state bureau of textbook production and curriculum research, are uploaded on the e-Balbharati website and can be downloaded free of cost. “Balbharati has scanned, rare old editions of textbooks and has made them available on e-Balbharati.in,” states the website.

“The decision to shift e-Balbharati was taken by the government when shutting down Balchitravani. The policy decision to revamp e-Balbharati is being discussed but I can’t say when it will come into effect. Hence, the renovation of the building is being done currently,” said Sunil Magar, director of Balbharati. Magar further added that students are increasingly moving towards the e-learning content.

“The proliferation of e-content will also lead to more books and other learning material being made available online, which will help reduce the weight of school bags. It will also be a fun way to learn. Students from the other boards are already accessing e-learning content from private players so if Balbharati is able to provide it to the students, it will be authentic content and reasonably priced too,” said a parent.

After years of discontent among staff members due to non-payment of salary, Balchitravani finally shut shop on March 31, 2017. The once iconic department was involved in creating educational videos for children. The government resolution regarding the closure had mentioned that Balchitravani has no relevance in the present age and is not economically viable.