A directory with detailed information about schools in the city that parents wait to lay their hands on was launched on Friday evening.
The 16th edition of the TTIS School Directory that contains a list of 250 schools in the city and its outskirts was launched by Janet Gasper Chowdhury, the president of St Augustine’s Education Society that runs the two schools in Barrackpore and Shyamnagar, and Joyita Majumder, the principal of Ruby Park Public School.
The directory has information about the school’s affiliation, infrastructure, fee structure, academic performance, admission and contact details.
“The directory puts together information that is valuable to parents. For schools, too, it gives an understanding of the institutions that are in the vicinity,” said Gasper Chowdhury.
The directory is useful to parents because they can have all the information at one glance, said Majumder.
TTIS School Directory 2020-21, title sponsor admissiontree.in, associate sponsor St Augustine’s Day School, Barrackpore and Shyamnagar, and powered by Ruby Park Public School was launched at the 91.9 friends fm office.
After the launch, host Jimmy Tangree had a chat with the two school heads on ‘blended learning: the new normal’.
The last 18 months of online class has opened new avenues of teaching that school heads feel is here to stay.
Gasper Chowdhury said that even when they reopen, going back to school will not be like pre-Covid times.
“There cannot be 50 students in one class and attendance in class would be half of the class size, vaccination for teachers and staff will be mandatory. In the new normal, blended learning will be a combination of face to face interaction and online teaching. That is the way to transition back to campus,” said Gasper Chowdhury.
She said that while online classes have made learning possible, students need physical interaction for laboratory work, toposheets in geography and for holistic learning.
For those in the pre-primary section, on campus class is important to learn to communicate in English and to develop social skills, she said.
“Blended learning is here to stay because the virtual platform has opened up many new opportunities and windows for students that cannot be erased in the future,” said Majumder.
Gasper Chowdhury said that teachers have been pushed to pick up technological skills and even when students go back to class, they would be using the knowledge to make powerpoint presentations, use YouTube to make their lessons interesting.