GUWAHATI: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools across the country and the world to suspend physical classrooms and commence classes online on the digital platforms.
There have been debated opinions doing the rounds on various social media about whether or not such online classes have been beneficial for students, and whether schools are selflessly doing their bit for students.
Whatever be the case, teachers across the region are diligently working towards ensuring academic progress of students even during these trying times.
Teachers across the region are trying to get used to new ways of teaching, by managing this sudden transition from physical classrooms to online ones. G Plus spoke with a few educators from Guwahati who highlighted the efforts of schools and teachers by putting forward their views.
Manobi Deka, a preschool owner and teacher, said that most parents have fear of online classes posing a health hazard for children. “Online classes, people believe, might strain the eyes of the children with them being glued to laptops and mobile phones for long hours. But health hazards are caused due to many other things. For instance, if children are in an air conditioned environment all the time or even if they consume too much packaged food and aerated drinks.”
Further, she opined that teachers are not so digitally literate in general. She also stated that despite all these problems, teachers are still trying to make the best out of available resources to ensure that children do not unlearn what they have learnt over the course of the last academic year.
“In our country, the system is such that the Chhatra and Guru sit in front of each other; face to face and education is imparted and students can learn. Teachers are now adjusting with the online mode and I myself have gone to many software experts to learn many things,” said Deka on the need to continue staying connected with her students.
It is vital for teachers to do this in order to ensure that students remember what was taught in class till school reopens.
“Teachers give fruitful activities to children which keeps them occupied. Kids learn rhymes that they recite at home; they do various colouring activities and attentively listen to their teachers through online classes. A lot of parents are cooperating with teachers in helping little children who get cranky and unruly at home, to attend these online classes which keep kids busy,” says the pre-primary school owner.
Government schools of the city are not far behind; teachers from these schools too are trying to catch up with the new online mode adopted by schools nationwide, to ensure that the school comes home to the child when the child cannot go to school.
“I had been instructed by my school to solve problems of mathematics and send videos to our students everyday through WhatsApp, but due to technical issues I wasn’t able to do that. We eventually did find alternatives to that and children can now learn from the comfort of their homes,” said Farjina Yasmin, a teacher from TC Government Girls’ High School in Guwahati.
“It’s a great experience and even during this time of COVID-19, kids get to learn something. The best part is that the kids understand what is taught. I have received positive feedback from students and it gives me immense pleasure as a teacher to know that children are benefitting from what is taught through this process,” added the high school teacher.
Ratul Goswami, Secretary of Lower Primary School Teachers’ Association, Guwahati, on the other hand, shed light on the plight of teachers due to the online learning process during COVID-19 lockdown. “The experience is not satisfactory, because teachers are also not habituated. Not all students have android mobile phones and it is slightly difficult to continue with this process in our state,” he said.
“A few teachers have come to us with verbal complaints that some guardians with malevolent intentions have caused trouble for newly recruited lady teachers by texting and video calling them; some parents have even threatened them repeatedly to return calls and messages, ever since they have started working on WhatsApp. Despite this we have not been able to take any action since the complaints were not in writing,” added the Secretary.
Although online learning has been difficult to conduct and attend for teachers as well as for students and their parents respectively, teachers across the city strive each day to help students acquire knowledge from home despite problems on both ends of the spectrum during this lockdown.
