Two virtual classrooms will be opened for 2,000 schools and 732 colleges, which are already equipped with high-speed internet and video facilities, the government said.
Virtual classrooms are expected to bridge the gap in the quality of education between main university campuses and their affiliated colleges. It also makes it convenient for the working class and housewives to further their education.
The classrooms will have state-of-the-art features, like interactive white board, a digital podium, Internet-enabled touchscreen Android TV, document cameras to project live experiments and 3D diagrams.
The allocation the state made is exactly the amount Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had allotted for a similar countrywide project in his 2014 budget.
The Opposition, however, is asking why the focus on virtual education, when many schools are non-functional because there are no teachers.
Two days ago, education minister Partha Chatterjee told the Assembly that the government would hire retired teachers as guest faculty on contract as a stop-gap arrangement.
There has been a freeze in teacher recruitment since 2014, because of a court case over eligibility exams and a dispute with the Centre over using improperly trained candidates.
[“source-ndtv”]
