Gandhinagar, Jul 24 (IANS): After private schools in Gujarat have suspended online classes for an indefinite period folowing order that they should not collect fees from students until the schools reopen, the state government has announced that it will offer free online classes to students of private schools.

Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama on Thursday said: "When the private schools have stopped the online classes, the state government has decided to hold online classes for all such private schools students of Class 3 to 12 free of cost. The classes will be both for the Gujarati medium and English medium students."

According to sources, the government has also constituted special committees for the purpose.

"The government has already been imparting online education for class 3 to 12 for Gujarati medium students via 'Vande Gujarat' channel through the Bhaskaracharya Institute of Space Application and Geostationary (BISAG) and also on the DD Girnar channel and YouTube. Now using the same platforms, we will be offering online classes to all the students of private schools and not let the educational interests of students hamper," said Chudasama.

Over 15,000 unaided schools of Gujarat had decided to suspend the online classes they were providing to the students during the lockdown period as well as the unlock period. Almost all of the the self finance schools had decided to put on hold, carrying out online classes after the Gujarat government's Wednesday circular which ordered them to not charge fees from the students till the schools resume.