Under Vidya Shakti, additional classes are conducted for students in need of extra coaching to improve their performance in schools and junior colleges.
Published Dec 17, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 17, 2024 | 8:00 AM
Additional teaching is being conducted in 49 schools and 29 junior colleges. (Representational pic/iStock)
The Andhra Pradesh government is implementing “Vidya Shakti” programme on a pilot basis to help students of government schools and junior colleges who have fallen behind academically.
Sources said a similar programme was unveiled in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Such programmes to help students catch up are also running in Udupi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Arunachal Pradesh. The results were promising.
Under Vidya Shakti, additional classes are conducted for students in need of extra coaching to improve their performance in schools and junior colleges.
The extra classes are offered online, after regular school hours.
The online classes will be facilitated through the IIT-Madras Pravartak Technology Innovation Hub.
The education department of the state government has already signed an agreement with IIT-Madras.
At present, the Vidya Shakti is being implemented on a pilot basis in Guntur and Chittoor districts.
Based on the results from these two districts, it was decided to conduct online classes for students needing the additional class in the next academic year.
As part of the pilot project, additional teaching is being conducted in 49 schools and 29 junior colleges in Guntur and Chittoor districts.
Students who have fallen behind and are in need of extra care have been identified in Kasturba Gandhi Girls’ Schools, AP Residential Society Schools, and Adarsha Schools. These students are attending the additional classes over Zoom.
The classes are designed to address the specific areas in which individual students have fallen behind. The online classes are held from 4 pm to 5 pm, after school hours.
Special training has been provided to teachers in conducting these online classes.
To assess students’ understanding of the subjects taught, weekly tests are held on Saturdays.
After evaluating these tests, teachers upload the marks online.
This process helps track the students’ progress.
Not everyone is applauding the government for this effort. Online classes, some educationists argue, cannot foster proper teacher-student relationships and do not serve the cause of education as well as regular interactions face-to-face between teachers and students.
Besides, Zoom is not an entirely free platform, and if more students have to be reached on that platform, the government might need paid subscriptions to keep services to students running.
S Balaji, state president of the Andhra Pradesh Teachers Association was not enthused. “The online teacher will not have direct interaction with the student. There cannot be one solution to multiple problems. There has to be a teacher-student interaction,” he told South First over the phone from Tirupati.
If special classes were indeed needed, volunteers could have been appointed and trained for each school, he said, suggesting that teachers ought to be involved in these decisions and processes. “Without considering problems at the ground level, conducting online classes will not be effective,” he said.
(Edited by Rosamma Thomas).
