Patna: The state government has decided to introduce virtual classrooms at government high and higher secondary schools in order to overcome the shortage of teachers.

A virtual classroom allows teachers and students to communicate and interact through video-conferencing. In a virtual classroom, the teacher need not be present in the same village, city, state, or even country as the students.

"The state government is planning to have virtual classrooms at high and higher secondary schools under which students sitting in remote village schools can get the best teaching taught by the best teachers in Patna and other districts," deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said at the government's Teacher's Day function at SK Memorial Hall on Wednesday.

Modi said he has seen the concept being developed by the district administration in Banka, where many schools are connected through virtual classrooms.

Many top educational institutions such as IITs and NITs are connected with virtual classrooms.

The state government had also decided to connect higher education institutions such as colleges through virtual classrooms but the project is yet to start, said sources in the know.

There are just 33,000 teachers for 50 lakh students studying at around 5,000 government from Class IX to XII, said sources in the education department.

The government requires at least around 40,000 more teachers to fill the gap.

However, getting qualified teachers - especially in subjects such as mathematics, science and English - remains a challenge for a state such as Bihar.

"The government is not getting qualified teachers," said a teacher at Patna High School, Gardanibagh, who spoke under cover of anonymity for obvious reasons.

"The government, to fight the teachers' shortage, few months back made ad-hoc appointment of teachers with such teachers getting Rs 1,000 per class," the teacher pointed out.

The teacher also pointed out that the virtual classroom concept is good but difficult to implement in a state like Bihar where even basic education infrastructure is hard to come by. "Many government high schools do not have electricity and computer connection, which are necessary for virtual classrooms," the teacher pointed out. "The government schools even lack necessary scientific equipment for practical classes. "