Bhubaneswar: Taking a step towards facilitating education services to students across the state, the Odisha School & Mass Education Department has adopted a new initiative.
As per reports, the new program will be beneficial for students deprived of online education in far-flung areas.
Minister Samir Dash informed that students who are currently pursuing a career in teaching will provide doorstep schooling in these areas as a part of their internship.
With no clarity on schools reopening in the state over the next few months, the Odisha government has decided to engage over 10,000 students pursuing their diploma in the elementary education training course to reach out to primary school students and teach them near their homes as part of their internship.
“These students are supposed to go to schools as part of their internship programme and teach primary school students. As schools are closed this year due to Covid-19, we decided to complete the internship by allowing them to teach the students of their village in some community building in the area with Covid-19-appropriate behaviour in place,” said Gangadhar Sahoo, director of SCERT.
The diploma in elementary education is a two-year course, after which candidates become eligible to become teachers in Odisha’s primary schools.
For Odisha, where close to 62 lakh children study in government schools, online teaching during lockdown could have been its story of opportunity in the face of adversity.
However, with lakhs of children having no access to computer or internet, achieving desired results of a hybrid learning process appears far-fetched.
