Maharashtra became the first state in India to adopt Google’s G Suite for Education and Google Classroom for administering online education. The platform is expected to cover 2.3 crore students across 1,09,942 schools in the state. At the launch of the initiative on Thursday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called it “a positive step” that will impact other sectors as well, and especially “work from home” concept amid the lockdown.
“Our primary concern has been the restarting of education rather than reopening of schools,” Thackeray said, adding that it was a matter of pride for the state to become the first to adopt this technology in India. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad were also present for the launch.
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Under the partnership, the state School Education department will provide individual educators and students with their own G Suite ID to ensure every student across regions can continue learning, while simultaneously training teachers to access the platforms for teaching online.
Blended learning programmes using Google platforms will be made available to students and teachers for free. Students will be able to access videos, homework and other content across devices in synchronous and asynchronous mode on Google Classroom. Teach From Home, an information hub, will help educators find information on technology tools in Marathi. Over 1.34 lakh applications have been received for the training programmes, Gaikwad said, adding, “The government is trying to solve the problem for access (to online resources) by partnering with communities, NGOs and schools.”
Courtesy: The Indian Express
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