No tabs in sight for Class 9 as course revamps

Mumbai: It has been three months and the Class 9 students of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run schools have yet not received their tablets. The academic year of these students began in the month of June and the BMC was supposed to provide them with tablets in the first week of the fresh year. According to the civic body, the delay is because the Class 9 syllabus has been changed from this academic year and they ‘need time’ to upgrade it on the tablets.

The Maharashtra state bureau of textbooks production and curriculum research, better known as Balbharti, changed the Class 7 and Class 9syllabus for the 2017-18 academic year. This is applicable to all students of the Maharashtra State Board. “As the syllabus changed this year, the new additions need to be upgraded in the tabs so it was delayed this year. Otherwise we would have given out the tabs much earlier,” said a senior official from the BMC’s education committee.

Committee members complain that it has been more than three months since the academic year and there is still no sign of the tablets. “We are almost in the middle of the academic year now. What is the meaning of giving out tablets when the students have reached their first semester examination,” said a member who did not wish to be named.

Commenting on the issue, Ms Shubhada Gudekar, chairman of the education committee said, “The process is on and within 15 days around 12,000 tabs will be given to all the Class 9 students of BMC-run schools.”

Commenting on the current status, she said, “Several tenders have been passed, but because of certain reasons, the procedure got delayed. However, now we are getting bidders and so it will resolve soon.”