Officials said that with the lockdown in progress, it was not possible for Balbharti to supply textbooks to the markets. Moreover, Class XII syllabus has been revised from this year. (Express photo by Gurjant Pannu/File)
To ensure that this year’s academic material reaches students of classes 10 and 12, School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad on Wednesday announced that Balbharti – the state bureau for textbook publishing and curriculum research – has uploaded textbooks in PDF format for students to download for free.
Officials said that with the lockdown in progress, it was not possible for Balbharti to supply textbooks to the markets. Moreover, Class XII syllabus has been revised from this year.
While textbooks for Class X were uploaded last year itself, the department on Wednesday uploaded 31 books for students of arts, science and commerce in English and Marathi.
“In order to prevent the loss of 10th and 12th students in the situations arising out of the lockdown, the students of 10th and 12th will have their books available on the website in a pdf form,” Gaikwad tweeted on Wednesday.
While content such as video lectures and interactive content for Class X is available on the e-balbharti learning app, officials said efforts had begun to update the app with content for Class XII.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Higher and Technical Education, Uday Samant, has announced that the Institute of Chemical Technology is in the process of developing a “sanitiser tunnel”.
This concept has in the past been used in Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The tunnel, installed at public places – railway stations, bus depots, vegetable markets, government offices, colleges and hospital entrances – can help sterilise whoever passes from under it within a matter of few seconds.
Developed as per WHO directives, it involves mixing of water with 1 per cent sodium hypochloride mixture.
“We are working to create a live model of this machine within a week. The government will then take a decision about the number of units and the areas where it wants to install it,” said professor at Shivaji University, Rajendra Sonkawade, who has been involved in the initiative.