Expect classroom teaching from next month: Bihar education minister

PATNA: The government would initiate special measures soon to compensate for the loss of classes due to Covid-19, said education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary in an exclusive interview to B K Mishra on Saturday. He also claimed that normal classroom teaching in schools and colleges was likely to resume next month if the present declining trend of Covid cases continued.Excerpts:
Now that fresh Covid cases are declining, when can schoolstudents expect resumption of normal classroom teaching?
If the existing trend continues, educational institutes may resume normal classes from July. They will, however, have to religiously follow all the Covid safety protocols.
What steps will the government take to compensate for the academic loss due to the prolonged closure of schools?
The education department will initiate some special measures to compensate for the loss of classes due to Covid-19. When schools reopen, some crash courses will be organized to help the students before regular classes begin.
What did the government do to ensure regular dissemination of knowledge to students during the pandemic?
All the educational institutes conducted online classes and uploaded study materials to their websites. Some special classes were also held on YouTube, Doordarshan and VidyaVahini app. Another app called e-LOTS was launched that contained soft copies of all the textbooks from the primary to the secondary level.
Do you think school students in the state have been able to take full advantage of online classes?
To be honest, the online mode of education cannot replace normal classroom teaching. A large number of students still do not possess smartphones or tablets as a result of which a knowledge divide has been created in the state.
Has the government initiated any steps for helping such underprivileged children?
The education department has urged the Union government to sanction necessary funds under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan so that electronic devices are made available to all the children belonging to BPL families.
Educational institutes have been facing acute shortage of teachers. Will fresh appointments be done against the vacant posts?
The government has already initiated necessary steps for expediting the process of appointment of teachers in schools and colleges. Nearly 1.25 lakh teachers will be appointed in elementary and secondary schools within the next three months and another 30,000 in the next phase. Besides, more than 4,500 posts of assistant professors in colleges and universities have been advertised by the Bihar State University Service Commission. So far as the scarcity of non-teaching staff in universities is concerned, the government has already decided to constitute a separate commission for their appointment.
Half of the universities in Bihar do not have full-time vice-chancellors (VC). One person is officiating as the VC of four universities simultaneously. How does the government plan to improve the situation?
All the vacant posts of VCs have been advertised by the chancellor’s secretariat. The process of their selection was delayed due to the pandemic, but now the process of their appointment will start soon.