Officials said that 15.05 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 exam and 17.65 lakh students appeared for the Class 10 exam. (Representational)

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Education (MSBSHE) is gearing up to declare the HSC (Class 12) and SSC (Class 10) results by July 15 and by the end of July, respectively. MSBSHE chairperson Shakuntala Kale said this at the review meeting of the school education department chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday.

“The process to declare the results has been fast-tracked and the results of HSC will be declared by July 15 and the SSC results will be declared by the end of July. Almost 97 per cent answer-sheets have been submitted by the examiners during the lockdown period and its scanning has also been fast-tracked,” Kale informed the meeting, as per the statement issued by Chief Minister’s Office.

Officials said that 15.05 lakh students appeared for the Class 12 exam and 17.65 lakh students appeared for the Class 10 exam. While the Class 12 board examinations were conducted before the lockdown restrictions were imposed, only the Geography paper of Class 10 could not be conducted due to lockdown restrictions. The government then announced that marks for Geography subject would be given based on average marks received in five other subjects of the examination, said an official.

Thackeray instructed the board to implement proper admission process for Class 11. The board officials said the admission process for Class 11 may require one and half month after the announcement of the SSC results. The necessary changes are being made in the online portal and students will be given facilities to pay their fees online, digital booklet, mobile application with others, the board officials added.

Thackeray also saw practical demonstration of online classes that have been started on pilot basis and also interacted with the students. The students should not face any technical issues and a mechanism should be created to address their issues if any, he added.

Education dept plans academic programme channels on Jio TV

State school education department may soon announce new channels dedicated to academic learning through platforms such as Jio TV. At the meeting held with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday, School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad is learnt to have said that while two channels on Jio TV will be dedicated to curriculum for classes 10 and 12, five other channels will cater to students from classes 1-12. Four to five hours will be dedicated to academic programmes on Doordarshan.

This pilot project, also involving Google meet platform, will be demonstrated to teachers, principals, MLCs from teacher constituencies in next few days. Thackeray is learnt to have asked the department to explore possibilities of how more students can be added to the spectrum of online education, as well as asked for the content to be made available offline.

For First Year Junior College Admissions, the department is mulling the use of a mobile app, apart from digital payment of fees and making available digital books, a statement from the CMO said. Cities like Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nashik will need to conduct admissions online whereas other cities will be able to conduct admissions offline. The department aims to complete the procedure for Class 11 within 45 days of beginning it.