Google has teamed up with the Maharashtra State Education Department to make digital tools like G Suite for Education and Google Classroom available for free across the state. Over one lakh schools will use the digital giant’s education tools and services, benefiting over 2.3 million children and instructors in the state.

Maharashtra is the worst-hit state in the country by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and these Google-provided digital classrooms are aimed at making remote learning more accessible in the state.

Bani Paintal Dhawan, Google’s Head of Education for India and South Asia, revealed the brand’s strategic digital tool deployment via a livestream on YouTube a day ago. Schools will now be able to access Google’s Teach from Home information portal in Marathi. It will also provide free teacher training and materials to assist teachers in adapting to the new remote learning norms.

Varsha Gaikwad, Maharashtra’s Minister of School Education, noted that the reaction had been exceedingly encouraging. “Within 48 hours of putting out an invitation link for Google Classroom training, we had approximately 1.34 lakh teacher applications. This demonstrates how enthusiastic our teachers are to begin utilising Google Classroom in their classrooms. It is apparent that our instructors are leading the way in the transition to digital education. To resolve any access issues, the government will continue to cooperate with the community, NGOs, and schools.”

Google is making its products available to all Maharashtra schools for free. Students and instructors will be able to engage in a virtual classroom using these tools. Aside from that, Google has made a number of additional steps in recent months.

Google and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) launched a collaboration in July to promote education in India by assisting teachers and institutions in digitising the learning process. By the end of the year, Google plans to enable one million instructors in 22,000 schools to provide “blended learning” – a mix of online and classroom instruction.