Parents, Teacher Struggles For Innovative Ways To Teach Students Amid Covid-19

Source: Hindustan Times

In a newly began daily schedule, students of Haryana’s  Jhamri village open their textbooks at the sight of the cart that arrives near their homes, filling the void left by closure of schools due to the lockdown and lack of digital infrastructure such as stable internet connectivity.

Students are maintaining social distancing by taking notes in their homes by the cart that arrives as teacher imparts lessons through the loudspeaker attached to the cart.

The innovative way to ensure that students cope up with the syllabus they have missed since classes were suspended has been initiated by Satyanarayan Sharma, who runs a school in the village in the state’s Jhajjar district. “The bigger issue is not the effect on students’ learning levels but that they should not drop out,” Sharma told PTI.

“I have arranged for a loudspeaker system on a cart. The teachers are asked to turn-wise go with the cart and park it at a feasible location and impart lessons from there. It cannot match up to classroom learning but will ensure some learning,” he said. 

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Many people have started astonishing practices in the time of lockdown to ensure regular education and flow of knowledge. Some of them are:

1. Ghanshyambhai, a teacher in Janan village, Gujarat, has started using the public announcement system of the village panchayat to share stories, songs, guidelines for parents on how to deal with children during the lockdown period, importance of exercising and much more.
2. Imran Khan, a farmer, has started spending his evenings teaching his 12-year-old son.With low internet accessibility in his Khair village in UP, he has to go near the panchayat office where internet connectivity is better.

Experts say the digital divide in the country may turn online classes into a disaster.

Anindit Roy Choudhary, director of programmes and policy impact, Save the Children (India), said India has a clear digital divide and the rural areas are far beyond the digital outreach.

Also Read: Bridging The Gap Of Digital Divide Possible?