Over 35,000 students of various middle and high schools and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) will be benefitted by the two innovative smart class projects launched by the Simdega district administration.
Pehal and Smartshala, the two projects offer smart learning facilities to the students of seven KGBVs and 86 government middle schools and high schools functioning in the district.
Deputy commissioner Vipra Bhal on Saturday inaugurated the smart classes of KGBV under project Pehal. "Simdega is one of the aspirational districts under Niti Ayog. The projects have been launched as a part of innovative measures under the aspirational district programme. The projects will help improve the quality of education based on different standards set by the Niti Ayog,” she said.
While project Pehal is a more expensive project for KGBVs, project Smartshala is being implemented in the other government schools. Under both projects, a special classroom has been allotted for smart classes in each of the schools wherein the students will be taught through audio-visual method. To ensure that children from all the classes get a chance to study through this method, a special timetable has been created in every school.
“Both the projects have been prepared in a way that functioning of these classes is not dependent on either internet or electricity. The consumption of electricity for playing smart courses on LED screens is very less and it can function with only AA batteries or a power bank charger. Also, all the courses are fed into a software which can function without internet,” Bhal said. There is also a plan of installing solar power plates for the functioning of these smart classes, she added.
The Smartshala also provides an option of realtime monitoring of the learning level of students. Under this project, every student sitting in the classroom will be given a remote and during the sessions random questions related to the topic would pop up on screen, the answer for which will be given by students using the remotes provided to them.
"This will help the teachers know whether the students are learning through the software or not. Also, this will help create a database which we can use to monitor the improvement in learning level and also know the subjects where students need more attention.
This will help us making further policies for education in the district," DC said.
As the smart classes do not require presence of a teacher in the classroom, it will also help solve the problems raised by shortage of teachers in Government schools.