Students in West Bengal are not devoid of learning despite the lockdown, thanks to the Banglar Shiksha Portal 2020.
The Banglar Shiksha Portal is live at banglarshiksha.gov.in where it is hosting study material, activity tasks, and ABP News video classes.
West Bengal School Education Department (WBSED) has started an online classroom program for classes 1 to 12, as schools are not physically active due to COVID-19 lockdown across the nation. The program goes by the name “Online Banglar Shiksha Classroom”. The aim is “Bringing schools at doorsteps to stay away from COVID-19”.
The Banglar Shiksha Portal was launched by the West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee last year in February to provide real-time data on state-run and aided schools. However now, with the need for the situation, this portal is also hosting online classrooms packed with a series of online videos, tasks, assignments, etc for pre-primary classes to class to 12.
To access the portal students have to simple search Banglar Shiksha portal on google or they can visit banglarshiksha.gov.in. The homepage of the website will have a link under the “Important announcement: Online Banglar Shiksha Classroom” section. On clicking the link the e-portal opens. Students can read the guidelines for the online classroom here. They can also access the activity tasks, program schedule for classes 10 and 12, and online videos.
Partha Banerjee, the Education Minister for WB Government writes in his letter to the students that under the direction of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, many measures are taken for the students.
On the portal, students can access a schedule for education programs for classes 10 and 12 under the “Programme schedule” section. These programs will be aired on ABP Ananda every day at 3 pm from April 7 to 13, 2020.
Every day, for 1 hour there will be programs aired on the ABP Ananda channel. In these programs, an experienced teacher will take up one subject / chapter to discuss daily. The students can view the program on their TV sets to make notes and learn concepts.
The schedule for the programs is also attached below:
In the online classroom program hosted at banglarshiksha.gov.in, students of pre-primary classes to class to 12, can indulge in e-learning videos and program videos that are aired on ABP Ananda channel. Students can also download the activity tasks that they need to complete and submit to their respective teachers once the school opens.
As per the guidelines of this online classroom program, students have to complete the activity task available on the portal and submit them to the teachers once the school goes back to their physical functionality. The tasks are available in PDF format under the “Activity task” section on the portal that the students can easily download and complete. In case of help students are required to refer their school textbooks. Teachers are also free to change the model activity tasks as per the requirements and send the same to the students via phone, SMS, emails, etc.
Apart from the activity tasks, students can also watch e-learning videos. These are youtube videos and can be watched without any enrollment, fees or hassle. The videos are available subject / topic wise on the Banglar Shiksha portal itself under the “e-Learning” section.
For the convenience of the students, many e-content are being provided over the portal as mentioned in the letter to the students by Partha Banerjee. Further, he has requested the students to continue their studies whole-heartedly and have urged all to stay home and stay safe.
The Department of School Education, Government of West Bengal, is responsible for enhancing the quality of education across the State. The department is responsible for education at all levels that include primary, upper- primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. Some of the major responsibilities of the departments are the development of curriculum, syllabus, textbooks, evaluation pattern, conducting board / council examinations, etc.
