SCERT starts content creation for bridge courses

After getting permission from the Tamil Nadu government to commence the courses, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has started creating the content and design of the books.

As DT Next had reported recently, the bridge course will provide supplementary learning materials for the students, who lost more than seven months of the academic year as the schools remained closed since March due to lockdown.

Also, chances of classes resuming for students from Classes 1 to 11 who do not have board exams are remote, officials said.

“Students from the government and aided schools would have limited knowledge in the subjects, as they do not have online classes.

The bridge courses will help ensure that they have the required knowledge to get promoted to the next class,” said a senior official from the School Education Department. Bridge courses are supplementary learning material, which is the shortened version of the subject, and the SCERT has been entrusted the task of creating their content and design. “The council officials will seek guidance from the academicians and teachers before finalising the content,” he added. “The book will come handy for the students to get the required knowledge for promotion to the next class. After the schools are reopened, the promotion will be based on bridge course completion,” the official said.

The official said that the course materials would be printed in both Tamil and English so that all the 27 lakh students from the State-run schools would be benefited. “The bridge course material will be distributed to teachers before it is given to the students so that they would be prepared to take classes based on that,” he added.

The government would spend Rs 10 crore to print the course materials, and Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation would procure it from a private agency through a tender process. They would be given schools, which would in turn distribute them to students.