After closure of the schools and lockdown enforced to prevent spread of Covid-19 disease, District Administration Budgam and Chief Education Officer Budgam have taken steps to start teaching activity and are reaching out to the students through online classes across the district.District Administration has been successful in linking 50000 students out of the total 61000 students who are enrolled in government schools in the 13 education zones of Budgam and children are being imparted education through online classes on a daily basis.District Administration is also working on a plan to provide education to students from Gujjar-Bakerwal community who do not have access to education through online mode. They shall be provided android phones and linked to the online classes. Under SAMAGRA, 110 android phones have been already procured and distribution of same among these students has been initiated.Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Tariq Hussain Ganai while giving details said that there has been tremendous response from the students’ community who have shown keen interest in joining online classes started in the district during the lockdown enforced in Budgam. He said that over 90 per cent schools have been connected and 73 per cent teaching faculty has been involved in the process of conducting these classes from 8 am to 10 pm in the night.District Institute of Education & Training (DIET) Budgam has prepared assignments up to 8th standard which have been made available to students at their door step while examination for Unit-I and Unit-II of the syllabus has also been conducted by teachers in Budgam.
Now the process for conducting First Term examination has been initiated with due regard to the social distancing norms. The teachers are visiting house to house to take examination so as to avoid gathering.785 schools out of a total of 966 educational institutions are presently linked and out of the total faculty strength of 6223 lecturers, masters and teachers, 4579 faculty members are involved in virtual classes, imparting education to students. Private coaching institutions in the district are also contributing in providing online education to students in district Budgam.Expressing satisfaction over online mode of teaching through zoom classes, video lecturing and other online classes, Chief Education Officer, Budgam is upbeat about the progress and said that among the districts, Budgam district has been able to link maximum number of students and their efforts have been appreciated by the authorities.“All efforts are being made to cover 100 per cent students’ community through online classes so that our education sector flourishes in the time of adversity. We have qualified teachers who have been put on job to ensure all students are connected to get education,” CEO Budgam Ms. Fatima Tak said. She added that private schools which have not been able to conduct online classes were also being roped in to ensure every student is connected.On mid-day meals, the district has also achieved remarkable progress in providing dry ration in advance through home delivery to 45000 students up to mid-June. Arrangements for providing cooking cost are also being made by collecting the bank account numbers of beneficiaries and same shall be directly credited into their accounts through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.