In a bid to assuage the anxiety of Class X students waiting to take their final year examination, the Education Department has roped in a group of teachers to conduct virtual classes.
The department has set up a virtual control room to clarify doubts of students through WhatsApp, voice call and video recording.
The phone numbers of a group of expert teachers in Tamil, English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Social Science have been shared with the students. Nearly 13,000 students are waiting to take the Class X final exams in Puducherry.
“We have been getting enquiries from anxious students about the date of exams. A few students were individually calling up teachers seeking to clear doubts. So, we thought of using virtual media platform for revising the subjects and engaging them on a daily basis to make them less anxious,” Director of School Education P.T. Rudra Goud told The Hindu.
Flooded with calls
The Centre, he said, was flooded with calls since it was established last week. “We were getting 500 to 700 calls every day. The maximum doubts pertains to Mathematics and the numbers are growing day by day,” said V. George Fernandez, State Coordinator, Samagra Siksha, Directorate of School Education.
As the department decided to directly engage the students rather than forwarding answers to their queries, the services of local cable channels had been sought to conduct virtual classes.
Daily from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. each subject is revised by teachers and the phone number of lecturers is scrolled by channels. The students can ask questions from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“So, after a teacher finishes the class, students can call the virtual control room and get their doubts cleared. It has found tremendous response from the students. By Tuesday, we will be completing the first round of revision in all six subjects. The second round of virtual revision classes will commence on April 9,” said Mr. Fernandez.
The department had launched a YouTube channel for online classes. Over 500 students had subscribed to the channel, he said.
The department had decided to equip all government teachers to conduct online classes. The department, in association with the Atal Incubation Centre, Pondicherry Engineering College, conducted a webinar on Monday on how to conduct online classes for students. As many as 3,660 teachers attended the webinar conducted by Executive Director of Atal Incubation Centre R. Sundaramurthy.