Schools across the country have been shut for over five months while the coronavirus pandemic rages on. During these difficult times, making decisions about which schools are best for their children has not been an easy task for parents. As a solution to this, the Bengaluru Schools' Education Initiatives (BSEI) will be organising a unique online education exposition to offer respite to parents looking for schooling options during this time. The virtual event is scheduled to be held on October 16, 17 and 18.
The Bangalore Online Education Expo will bring together parents, students and educational institutions under the same virtual umbrella. The organisers say that this is probably India’s first-ever virtual education expo that is led and organised by parents.
BSEI is an offshoot of Bangalore Schools, a Facebook community that was formed to offer support to parents, students and educators regarding subjects related to education. It was formed by Shweta Sharan in 2012 and has over 49,000 members.
They had also previously conducted an expo in January 2020 in Bengaluru, which was attended by more than 2,000 parents and had stalls put up by over 25 schools.
Speaking to TNM, Shweta Sharan, who is one of the Directors of BSEI, said, “The feedback we got from parents is that it is better to organise it in October because that is when admissions typically open up in schools and people are on the lookout for schools.”
“Another reason is that we really wanted parents to come under one virtual roof and discuss many things that they are not able to discuss otherwise. For instance, the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020. The NEP is a huge deal for parents and where they can find information about it. We will have panellists talking about it and what it means for them,” she said.
The expo will allow parents and children to virtually visit the stalls set up by the schools and interact with them. It will also have competitions such as a family quiz, Let’s Jam (a one-minute talent show for children) and Inspire Talks (an event for children between 6-15 years where they can share their stories and inspire others). The expo will conduct a paper presentation contest for educators on the topic “Exploring the New Normal in teaching".
“While admissions are definitely one of the reasons we wanted to have the expo, we also wanted it to be a space for the entire parent community to come together,” said Shweta.
For more details on the expo, you can visit www.bsei.in.