There is something for everyone, right from parents, teachers and students, in the IT programmes launched by schools in Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur, July 8: Websites and portals are no longer exclusive to corporate houses as schools in the city are employing new-age technologies to cater to the needs of parents, students and teachers.

SDSM School for Excellence offers technology-aided education to its students by making best use of what they call “cyber fundas”.

“We plan to connect the classrooms through computers as is done in the US. This will be a library of the future and students of each class will have access to it through computers installed in their classrooms,” said N.K. Singh, dean and director of SDSM.

“Students simply have to log on to the site and feed the name of the book and they would immediately get to know whether the book has been issued and if yes then to whom and when it will be returned. For reference work they can log on to the concerned sites. Details of CDs and maps in the library will also be available on the site,” he said.

Jamshedpur Public School too has a similar system. Here the library has one computer which is accessible only by the librarian who helps the students with their reference work.

“This system is convenient for the librarian who can save time and give attention to more students. The school also issues computerised question papers, report cards and fee cards to the students,” said Lalita Sareen, principal.

“Computerised question papers are examinee-friendly as it has pictographical questions and graphs,” she added.

Students of SDSM, on the other hand, answer tests on the computers itself. “We pair a weak student with a bright student and they share a PC while answering the test,” said Singh.

“The question paper is objective and there is a time limit, like three minutes for each question. If an examinee is unable to give the answer within the stipulated time, the next question appears on screen and it is assumed that the student did not know the answer. If the answer is typed in on time, the students get to know right then whether it was correct or not,” he added.

SDSM will launch a website for parents to keep them abreast of their ward’s performance in class. There will be a page for their suggestions too.

“Parents will have to use their individual passwords to log on to the website. This apart, the students can propose their examination time-table or suggest how the teacher should proceed with the lessons. As for teachers, they can prepare their academic calendar,” said Singh.

Narbheram Hansraj English School launched their very first website www.nhes.ac.in on July 3. “It is a ten-page site, which gives a comprehensive history of the school, the fee structure, the annual school calendar and toppers in ICSE and ISC. We plan to make the website interactive depending on the response from parents,” said Meeta Jakhanwal, principal of NHES.