Maharashtra State’s School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad.

The Maharashtra government is considering a virtual reopening of schools as per the dates of a usual academic year, if situation doesn’t permit the opening of physical schools as planned. Schools in Vidarbha region are set to begin from June 26, whereas schools in other areas of the state will resume from June 15.

In a meeting held on Tuesday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray instructed the school education department officials to explore how digital education can be expanded effectively. As part of a pilot project for online education, he suggested giving tablets along with storage cards to students, making use of television channels as well as seeking support of mobile companies to further the initiatives.

Thackeray said that schools and school management committees (SMC) should be given guidelines on conducting classes in shifts, or calling students of one standard a day. He also asked the department to ensure health checkups for all teachers and students once schools begin, along with making anti-bacterial hand-wash solutions available to all schools.

He further asked the department to consider the suggestions and opinions of all stakeholders and make provisions to reduce school curriculum.

Speaking to the Indian Express, an official from the department said, “Academic Session will begin on 15 June irrespective of whether the schools start or not. Wherever they can’t, in red zone or other places, we will use digital media to reach out.”

In green zones of the State, the schools are likely to open. However, no list has been prepared so far given the uncertainty. “These decisions will be made at the district level, depending on what the district collector and SMCs decide.”

Local teachers would soon be instructed on connecting to students through phones as a way of monitoring the efficacy of the programmes being run online, through radio and television. However, the department has yet not finalized ways of assessing student learning and maintaining attendance.

“Our focus right now is to first begin the learning process for each child. We already run programmes on DD Sahyadri. We have sought to run them on two more channels. If we are able to link content to TV, we hope to connect to students who have left the State to go to their native place,” said another official.

So far, the department has made PDFs of all Balbharti textbooks from class 1 to class 12 available for free download on the Balbharti website. Diksha mobile application offers 8000plus content pieces to students related to chapters in each subject. The department is also exploring the use of Google Classroom and community radios, said officials. Officials have claimed that 50 percent students can be tapped through these initiatives and are working on ways of reducing school dropouts.