After a long period of dismal performance,the State Institute of Education or Balchitravani as it is known is all set for a revival. With a full-time director appointed after six years,Nandan Nagare,the director of Balchitravani has chalked out a three-point agenda to raise funds for the dying institute. The proposals have already been sent to the government. In 1992,the institute turned into an autonomous body. From 2004 onwards,Ministry of Human Resource Development stopped giving salary grants and started paying in project mode,which was a huge blow to the finance of the institute. The last recruitment process was held in 1999 in the institute. The total number of staff then was 89. It has come down to 47 whereas the capacity is about 120. Then there are salary issues where in the pay-scale of those workers who cannot opt for higher promotion has not been increased. Since 2004,no promotions have happened in the institute. So the morale is low, said an official. It has been hard for institute to make good shows as the major chunk of money goes in paying salaries. I have already sent three proposals that will help Balchitravani in the long run. For getting a permanent source of income,we have proposed that all the government-run schools can subscribe to the shows we produce. There are around 90,000 schools,around 8 lakh teachers and over 2.6 crore students. Every school gets grants under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan. Even if every school gives Rs 400-Rs 500 a year,it will be a big boost, said Nagare. The second point is revamping our website. We want to transform it into an e-learning platform where there are interactive educational programmes for students from class 1 to 12. Since now most kids are on net and this will be a very easily accessible medium for them. The schools can obviously subscribe to it but the best part is even families,NGOs or any private party can subscribe to it. We can even subsidise for students, said Nagare. Thirdly we are planning e-textbooks. The syllabus will be made interactive,exciting and practical. Some amount of grant received under the scheme to give free textbooks can be diverted to this scheme. We have started the work on e-textbooks for class 1 and 2, added Nagare. The production section in the institute has never been upgraded since 1992-1994 when the equipment were bought. The equipment are outdated and there is an immediate want of good equipment to produce quality programmes. We want Rs 2.5 crore a year for the salary and maintenance activities. But if the entire unit has to be renovated,projects outsourced and quality programmes made,then we need at least Rs 5 crore a year, said Nagare. Nagare has also a long-term vision to make a virtual classroom in Balchitravani and then make such classrooms across Maharashtra. In the end this institute is for rural upliftment. What can be better than the live telecast of a virtual classroom where there are about 8,000 classrooms across the state where the students can just sit and interact with their counterparts. But that is a long-term project. Once the first three proposals are approved and we make enough money,only then we will do all the other stuff, said Nagare.
