A teacher’s group- ‘Techno Teachers Team’- which has been offering online classes for school teachers during the lockdown period, will also provide career guidance classes from this week.
According to N. Kalpana, a teacher at Municipal Higher Secondary School in Kumar Nagar, Tiruppur who is part of the team, the career guidance classes will focus on IAS, IPS and TNPSC examinations as well as employment opportunities in the public sector. The classes will be conducted via Microsoft Teams mobile application on Thursday. “We expect around 150 college students across the State to participate in the first session,” she said.
The team comprises Ms. Kalpana and two government school teachers from Vellore, who have been conducting online classes for teachers from April. “We focus on how to implement technology in classrooms,” she said. Topics such as e-learning, blog creation, YouTube channel creation and utilisation of online tools available for free of cost are being covered for the teachers. Over 100 teachers participate in the one-hour session every day, according to Ms. Kalpana.
Ms. Kalpana, who handles English for Classes VI to X in her school, said that online classes could not be conducted continuously for students due to issues in internet connectivity among them. However, sample questions for the upcoming Class X public examinations are being shared to students via WhatsApp, she said.
R. Ramesh, Chief Educational Officer of Tiruppur district, said that there have been no directions from the Department of School Education to conduct online classes. “Some teachers and headmasters are doing it out of their own interest,” he said.