Coronavirus Lockdown: Punjab Technical Education Department starts virtual classes for ITI students

Punjab Technical Education and Industrial Training Department have started online classes to train students of the ITIs in the state. 

Punjab Technical Education and Industrial Training Department have started virtual classes for the ITI students in the state, in order to avoid any academic loss during this lockdown period. 

The e-learning content for 34 trades has already been identified by a committee of Principals and Instructors.

"On the directives given by the Technical Education Minister, Charanjit Singh Channi, the technical education department has taken this initiative, so that studies of the students studying at the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the state is not hampered," said Dr. Anurag Verma, Principal Secretary, Technical Education, and Industrial Training, said.

The e-learning content was identified from various online portals like Bharat Skills, National Instructional Media Institute (NIMI), YouTube, etc. The material has been arranged week-wise as per the syllabus prescribed by the National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT), he added.

The e-learning material will be sent to the trainees one day before via WhatsApp. The next day the teachers will take online classes for 40-60 minutes from 10.30 to 4 p.m. After, the class, the teachers will give assignments to the trainees. The Assignments are to be submitted back by 6 p.m. on WhatsApp. A test would be conducted on the weekend. Engineering drawing and workshop calculation and Science classes would be conducted every day at 3 p.m. for students of engineering trades.

The methodology of teaching will be finalized after doing the trials of online classes in five ITIs. In each district, a nodal officer and a master trainer have been assigned to train the instructors about the usage of the internet in teaching from April 10 to 11. These trained instructors will further train all the trainees in the respective districts.