CHANDIGARH: Some 23.96 lakh children of Class I to XII studying in government and private schools in Punjab under Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) are now getting their lectures through online radio during the nationwide lockdown imposed to combat the COVID-19 menace
Talking with this correspondent, Samarjeet Singh Shammi a senior teacher of the education department and program coordinator said, "From April 1 Doaba Radio (online radio) has started giving one hour program 'Suno Sunawa Paath Prawa' for the students from 3 PM to 4 PM where recorded lectures of government school teachers are played and students can listen to them. Each lecture is of twenty minutes and thus three lectures per day is played on the radio.
These radio sessions were initially planned for students of Class IX, XII and X but due to overwhelming response from students of other classes also, now it is from Class I to XII.
Teachers have been sensitized and they record the lecture of their subject and email it to the radio station which then plays it. The recorded lectures are posted on the Facebook page of Doaba Radio as well as on sound cloud so that the students who miss the lecture can later download and hear it.’’
"Now we are in the process of making a weekly schedule of each class per district which will further help the students. Also in a day or so, live phone-in interaction of teachers with students will start. It will be for about two hours per week when the students can ask the questions and teacher concerned will clarify their doubts. The online teaching is for all school students, be it government or private, which is affiliated with Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). The students or their parents can download the radio on the android phones through play store and also on apple phone,’’ Shammi said.
He also said that this idea came as nowadays the students are on the internet so why not teach them this way and thus the syllabus will also be completed.
As per the data available with the state education department, there are 23.96 lakh students from Class pre-primary to Class XII in the state in both government and private schools under PSEB.
For effective management of time now Chandigarh Administration has also given directions to all government and private schools in the city to start online classes for students.