PCMC schools ‘transformed’ in past three years, claims outgoing education officer

All the primary school classrooms have become smart digital classrooms with video recording and Artificial Intelligence capabilities in last three years, Shinde claimed.

PCMC runs 123 schools, including 105 primary schools. (File)

PCMC education officer Jyotsna Shinde, who was Wednesday transferred to Raigad district, today said during her tenure, all-out efforts were made to transform civic schools into “smart schools” and reduce the drop-out rate of students.

“In the past three years of my tenure, we have hastened the process of implementing the smart school concept. As a result, we have succeeded to a large extent in turning civic schools into model schools… a concept which can be implemented across the state,” said Shinde.

She claimed, “Our civic schools are smarter than the Delhi civic schools today. Be it technology-wise or amount of infrastructure that we have put in place, PCMC schools outsmart Delhi schools by a long way. Each classroom is a digital classroom, there are cameras in each classroom, every student is being monitored and trained. The popularity of PCMC schools has gone up compared with the past, when they were looked down upon.”

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PCMC runs 123 schools, of which 105 are primary schools. Shinde as education officer (administration) headed the primary section. “Under the School Learning and Resource Improvement Program, we have set up e-classrooms in all our schools,” she said.

All the primary school classrooms have become smart digital classrooms with video recording and Artificial Intelligence capabilities in last three years, Shinde claimed. “We have set up STEM and Robotics labs, besides implementing BALA or Building as Learning Aid concept, she said.

The officer said in accordance with baseline survey findings, site preparation across the selected schools was initiated. All necessary work including electrification, networking, white wash, STEM educative painting and minor repairs were completed under the project, she claimed.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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