Tag: Schools During Lockdown

‘As Schools Reopen, Teachers Are Happy But Also Scared’

By LokMarg

Nisha Prasad, a teacher at St. John’s School in Gr Noida West, says the return to physical schooling is full of challenges for both students and teachers

When after two years, we returned to ‘normal’ schooling, the classrooms were adorned with posters, balloons and flowers. It was surely a welcome change as students trickled into classrooms after studying online for two academic years. However for parents and teachers it’s a mixed bag of emotions of cheer, relief and fear.

School teachers have done admirable work during the pandemic: adapting to online teaching; learning how to use software tools; finding new ways of teaching students; coping up with the changes in the exam pattern; presenting teaching materials and simultaneously managing their families at home. Yet, most teachers faced a 25 percent deduction (in some cases, more) in salary during Covid times.

Covid-19 did scare the hell out of us. All the time I worked during the surge, I was scared of getting sick myself and scared of bringing the virus home to my family. It was thus not without a sense of fear that we returned to physical classrooms a few weeks back.

In the ‘new normal’, the schooling has changed a lot. Children too are getting re-integrated into the system. Most children think ‘it’s a relief to be back in school’ instead of interacting with teachers and classmates through a screen. However, everyone is worried about a resurgence also.

Prasad feels children will need some time to readust into ‘new normal’

For the teachers, the challenges with regards to getting children back to physical schooling are endless. Post-pandemic students do not like being in school for long hours; handwriting and written work have taken a backseat; students are comfortable sitting alone rather than making friends; outdoor activities and physical games do not excite them; their sleeping, studying, eating, interacting patterns have changed; making the usual teaching and learning style are a little difficult to maintain.

ALSO READ: ‘School Environment Provides Holistic Learning’

I guess we should give children some time to adjust and let them be. Keeping students calm and helping them ease back into the everyday routine is key at this point.

Students who come from the families of low income groups were the most affected by school closure as many of them did not have access to devices for attending online classes. However, they are also struggling with the transition back to the classroom.

Their challenges are different and in some cases more serious. Many lost their jobs during the pandemic. It is traumatic for their children to think about stationery or uniform expenses. This is not something that students should be bothered about. There is a drastic number of dropouts too in case of female children as these parents need more helping hands at home and can’t afford education at this cost.

Thankfully, the school management is taking all necessary precautions. Yet, if you notice, the cases in schools are rising once again. We are seeing an average of 65 percent attendance in classrooms from the past two weeks. As of now any student showing symptoms of cough, cold or fever is asked to refrain from physically coming to school. We as teachers are really worried and scared for our students. Many teachers are ready to quit rather than putting their lives at risk.

However, it appears that the dilemma among school, teachers, parents and the governments is likely to continue until the world sees a way out of the impasse, which could only be through the much-awaited vaccine for across all age groups.

As told to Deepti Sharma

‘School Environment Provides Children A Holistic Learning’

By LokMarg

Bengaluru-based Arpana Tripathi, 45, is happy about reopening of schools for her daughter. She narrates her reasons for allowing her daughter to go back to school

On September 2nd, we got a communication from my daughter’s school that they have received guidelines from the government and would be reopening for offline classes as well. We didn’t need to think twice about it. My 16-year-old daughter Aarshia who is in Grade 12th was excited to go back to school.

It has been both frustrating and exhausting more mentally than physically for the schoolchildren to be at home for so long now. And if I talk about senior students like my daughter, it is worse for them as they don’t get any breather from studies with online classes at home. It leads to a saturation point for them. My daughter has missed some precious time the past one and half year. The isolation that they faced due to lockdown and being at home due to the pandemic has been horrible.

Be it a primary student or a secondary student, school plays an important role in a student’s life and there is nothing that can compensate for that school time.

Tripathi says her daughter Aarshia (left) is excited about rejoining school

Yes, these are unprecedented times and no one could help so we had to follow the rules laid down by the government to fight the pandemic. No doubt that online classes came as a blessing in these times but at home the kids will only learn what their parents want them to while in school they get to live and learn life on their own, being exposed to various thought processes of the teachers and fellow students.

Social interactions help them in their learning process and inter-personal skills. I see my daughter any day more energetic and happy to be going to school. There is a routine, she looks forward to another day at school unlike the lockdown days and online classes at home when she would be lethargic and saturated. For their holistic well-being and development, they need to return to school as soon as possible. I fully support the government’s decision to reopen school for senior students. It is such a breather for my daughter.

ALSO READ: ‘Won’t Send My Kid To School Till He Is Vaccinated’

I know the kids are yet to be vaccinated but it has been almost two years that we have been fighting Covid-19 and the senior schoolchildren are well aware of the Covid-appropriate behaviour. In fact of what I see, children seem to be more particular in following Covid-19 protocols than the adults.

Besides, the school has made arrangements for social distancing. The students are required to wear two masks, there will be a separate bench for each student, and they have been asked not to share their food or water with classmates. They also sanitise the classrooms on a regular basis.

And to think of it, even if I chose to not send my daughter to school, would that guarantee me zero-risk for her for Covid -19? So not sending them to school is not the solution. School and parents together have to collaborate and make efforts for a safe return of students to school.

I so hope that the third wave doesn’t hit us. For, that will pave the way for students get back to their normal school life.

As Told To Mamta Sharma

‘My Child Is In Class 2; She Is Yet To See Her School’

By LokMarg

Banti Kumari, 32, a homemaker in Ranchi, finds it bizarre that one full academic year has gone for her daughter but she is yet to know what primary school building or a classroom looks like

These are strange times! Because of the virus we are getting used to a life we had never imagined. My eight-year-old daughter Akshita Arya will remember her unusual educational history for sure. A student of Class II at Saint Michael’s, she has never seen her primary school building for a single day. And most probably she never will. Actually the different wings of Saint Michael’s are situated at different locations in Ranchi. So, for her pre-primary she went to one location and for her primary yet another (the current location). And once she passes Class 2, they will be moved to yet another building at a new location.

I feel sad that her foundational years of education are so wobbly; that there is so much confusion and no solution to the Covid crisis in sight. One year and people would have still managed, but two years of this is perhaps a lot.

Last year, after the pandemic was declared, the admission process took a lot of time as everyone was scrambling to put systems in place and make sense of the pandemic. Online classes started in earnest only in May, 2020. The interaction between parents and teachers has gone down drastically.

Earlier, we used to have parent-teacher meetings (PTMs) every month, but now at the most we call teachers for a few minutes if we have any query. I also miss the fact that my child used to feel like part of a huge, diverse team in school and her worldview was getting broader day by day, but now she is just confined to the house. They can’t even go and play outside.

Kumari rues that her daughter Akshita Arya (left) has not witnessed any extra-curricular school activity

Extra curricular activities at school would teach them that there is a world beyond books or in other words that learning in greater books, and we haven’t been able to compensate for that at home or in online classes.

I also miss her Physical Education (PE) Classes. She, like most kids, is a bundle of energy but during perpetually stretching lockdowns, her energy has been confined to the 4 walls of the house. Plus, she used to actively participate in her Annual Day and other important functions. The preparation process, the co-ordinating and bonding with others, gave her memories and a wonderful sense of identity. But for the past two years she hasn’t had any new memories. The virus has taken away two precious years of childhood memories.

ALSO READ: ‘Cancellation Of Board Exams Is A Relief’

I doubt the schools will reopen for kids this year, especially for kids as young as mine. So most probably she will see the face of her school building now only in Class 3. One of the things I used to love the most about her school was that they used to give these home link assignments (basically general knowledge assignments) that we as a family used to help her fill. Helping her prepare for her functions, assignments etc. used to be golden bonding time for us as a family, but the pandemic has changed everything.

From the school being a second home, the home has become the school and all lines have become blurred. However, I hope the air clears soon and we can go back to pre-corona times. My daughter keeps asking me: “Mumma ye corona kab khatm hoga? Main fir se kab school jaungi, kab apne friends se milungi?” I want to be able to give an answer to that to my daughter.

As Told To Yog Maya Singh

Ghatak Speaks about her Struggle

‘Husband & I Lost Jobs In March; Survival Is Tough’

By LokMarg

Young parents Rimpa Ghatak and her husband Manthu Roy were looking forward to join a Siliguri school as art teachers when the pandemic struck. Ghatak speaks about her struggle and hopes

As if to weather the pandemic with a young child was not enough, my husband and I both lost our jobs during the pandemic. Call it a twist of fate or whatever else but it has been difficult for us to make sense of the whole situation.

My husband Manthu Roy (35) and I both were employed as art teachers at a private residential school in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh and even had new job offers from a reputed school in Siliguri, West Bengal around December 2019. Since the offer was good and Bengal is known for its art appreciation, we decided to take a chance.

My husband, a PGT Fine Arts, and I had just about finished our notice period when the pandemic struck in March 2020. We had resigned from Etawah school and the Siliguri school, which we were supposed to join from new academic session, closed down like many other institutions. Between two stools, we fell to the ground.

Manthu Roy with some of his artworks

There was a time in March when I felt I was close to despair as I didn’t know what future was in store for my child, who was barely six months old. Our savings were dwindling. Given the strict lockdown, we couldn’t even go to our parents. Those were very difficult days from March to June. We had built up an atmosphere for art appreciation in Etawah but it couldn’t provide us even online classes so that we could earn money from it.

ALSO READ: ‘Virus Took Away My Job, Not My Resolve’

Some of my husband’s students had got placed in premier institutes like NIFT (Kolkata), NID (Ahmedabad) etc. and they kept us motivated to carry on. Manthu and I flew from Etawah to Siliguri the first chance we got and moved in with my elder sister and her husband who also stay in Siliguri.

We managed to get a few online classes but the pandemic has been hard on everyone financially and learning art is not on top of people’s priority. Thus online classes haven’t been very fruitful financially. We have been networking actively on social media, but between household chores, caring for a young baby, doing artwork because you also need to keep on creating work to show after networking, it hasn’t been easy.

Rimpa Ghatak and Manthu Roy

Now, in October we hope something moves for us. It has been nearly seven months without work now. The school at Siliguri that we were supposed to join has been really nice to us and keeps us updated about the state of things.

Art has kept us sane during the pandemic as it has kept many other people sane during the pandemic. So many people have learnt new art forms during the lockdown. It is perhaps time India began to appreciate its artists and help them thrive, especially in the new scenario. We are all in this together, right? Wish us luck!

Online Classes

‘Online Classes Completely Drain The Parents’

By LokMarg

Roma Aggarwal, 37, says online schooling is tiresome for parents who have to juggle among domestic chores, office work and children’s assignments. She prays for the pandemic to end and schools to reopen

Online classes aren’t really my cup of tea. I love the idea of children being formally educated inside the school premises with real-time interactions between teachers and students as well as among themselves. Education is not only about the stuff we are taught, it is also about the social skills we learn, how we understand non-verbal cues from other people and how we learn to carve our own space in the sea of people. But it is what it is!

The pandemic hasn’t relented for so many months now and I wonder when my two daughters will be able to go back to school. My younger daughter, aged three, was supposed to start school formally this year, but then things changed drastically. My elder daughter is in Class IV and she misses her school a lot.

I have had to change and update gadgets continuously to enhance the quality of the online interaction. As an urban family, we have access to smartphones, laptop etc. which we share on priority basis, and still online classes aren’t an easy navigation. So, I wonder about those families who may have to share gadgets, like one phone between two siblings.

ALSO READ: ‘Online Classes, PUBG, Web Series… Lockdown Is Fun’

It is difficult for the young children to make such huge changes in lifestyle. My elder one generally oscillates between her iPad and her laptop for her studies, but there are days when she complains of sore eyes and mild headaches because of the intense focus she has to keep on the electronic mediums. So I have also now started connecting the laptop (net book) to the TV. And since my younger one accesses her classes on my phone, it means I neither get the TV, nor the phone to unwind after a hard day’s work.

Whatever free time I get is spent in helping my elder daughter with her assignments. I am a housewife but there is so much online involvement with my elder daughter that I feel like I have joined a fully functioning office. We as parents have to help our kids with conducting their lab experiments, then with their homework across subjects and multiple assignments. Plus there are also their various online tests.

Then there are video and photo uploads to be done. My elder daughter starts her classes around 8.20 am and one class goes on for 40 minutes. And I have to be alert along with her. My younger one’s classes start much later and she has also been complaining about her eyes watering during the classes. Since ages we have told kids to use the screen less or sit far away from the screen so that it doesn’t impact their eyes. But now the screens have become unavoidable. Continuous and long use of ear phones might also hamper the children’s sensitive ears, so I don’t allow them to use earphones for online classes.

WATCH: ‘Online Classes Are Only A Temporary Option’

My house is right now divided into water-tight zones. One room has been taken up by my husband, where he dedicatedly does his work as an IT Professional. Another room has been assigned to my daughter in which she can attend her classes undisturbed by any outside sound or noise. My younger daughter and I have taken over the living room. She gets easily restless during the classes and I have to then help her soothe.

I sincerely hope the schools open soon and we go back to the pre-pandemic world. Till now there are no updates as to when schools would open in Chennai. Since there is not much physical activity during online classes, the kids don’t expend much energy and they eat fewer times saying they don’t feel hungry and the portions have also been getting smaller. In this pandemic they can’t even go out for physical activities, which is not good for their health.

Online Classes

‘Anxiety In Students, But Online Mischiefs Continue’

By LokMarg

Parth Kamra, a Class 12 student in Delhi, says even though there is worry among students about their term, Coronavirus hasn’t been able to stop classroom mischiefs

Currently, I am in Class 12 studying Commerce and our batch is right in the middle of major confusion and uncertainty caused by Coronavirus. There is much anxiety over the fate of our term amid the reopening of schools. Yet, neither our education nor our mischief has stopped. Be the classroom real or virtual, children always find ways to pull a trick or two and keep the class in high spirits.

Our generation is so adept at technology that we find solutions to almost anything. Our teachers recognise this. They say: “Beta, we might not be as good as you when it comes to technology but we are getting there, slowly and steadily. Every day, we are reading and learning more about online classes.”

Meanwhile, until the teachers manage to keep up the pace with students when it comes to technology, we hear so many funny stories all around. One of my classmates told me how she recently managed to attend the classes of another school using their password for Zoom (a web meeting zone). Once inside the (virtual) classroom, she had a little fun with the female teacher conducting the class, by asking her a series of silly questions and taking her by surprise. Before the lady teacher could realise the reality, my friend left the class. Poof!

ALSO READ: ‘We Used Voice Data For e-Classes’

Right after the first lockdown was announced in March, our teachers used to teach us using the Google Classroom app and we simply used to take notes. Later, we shifted to classes on Zoom but it took at least four days to get things right. The students were quicker to find their way around Zoom. A few of us would simply split their screen and use social media on one side while the teacher would be teaching.

Some would simply put the teacher on mute or would just log in their attendance and go away. Some would keep changing their usernames so that the teacher wouldn’t know who is who. So one day the teacher would find that none other than “Narendra Modi” was attending her classes while on other days there would be Katrina Kaif in the classroom.

ALSO READ: ‘Online Classes, Pubg… Lockdown Is Cool’

In the last case, the teacher figured out and shifted the classes to Google Meet (another web meeting application). Her, one cannot just make up any username and one can login only by using valid email IDs.

However, our tuition classes still run on Zoom, and students are having fun there. The teacher there too has disabled chats and one can send messages only to the teacher for getting one’s queries cleared.

While most of us are having fun, we haven’t lost touch with the real situation ahead of us. We hope our schools reopen soon after the summer vacations end. Interacting in real life is always way more interesting and fun than in the online world.

Smartphones

‘Few Smartphones, So We Used Voice Data For e-Class’

By LokMarg

Anuj Agarwal, the principal of a government inter college in Uttar Pradesh, says not all his students had smartphones at home. So, he devised new ways to conduct e-classes

I have been in the teaching profession for nearly 12 years now and I wish to take education to the outermost fringes of society. I teach Social Sciences and English, and I want to impart knowledge to anyone who is curious and dedicated. However, when the Coronavirus struck and schools, colleges were shut down, it acted as a sudden dampener to my purpose.

Our government college, at Manpur in Moradabad, was established recently as the first inter college in the area. We were in the middle of fine-tuning paraphernalia when the virus outbreak happened. Since it was such an unprecedented crisis, it took us some time to figure things out.

Most of our students come from underprivileged background who either do not have smartphones or cannot buy expensive data plans. Nor could we allow them to huddle around a single smartphone for classes because of social distancing norms. We therefore realised we needed to innovate to be able to continue teaching them via distance learning methods.

ALSO READ: ‘Teaching My Daughter In Lockdown’

You will be surprised with what solutions small-town India can come up with to overcome hurdles. Video calls hog data. So we decided to break down school curriculum chapters into smaller topics, and then converted them into voice data.

Next, we disseminated the same chapters via various mediums. To explain some subjects, we made videos on the topic and put them up on public platform like YouTube. We ensured these videos were of short-duration. Those who had access to a basic smartphone and a basic data plan, could opt for the video format.

For those who could not access videos on their phone, we made small audio clips of a few minutes each. These audio clips were sent through both WhatsApp and as normal voice recordings. We also used standard SMS services to send written material. This didn’t require any internet connection or downloading.

Plus, we told our students that we were available on call to clarify any doubt they might have on a particular topic. It’s ok if a student can’t see us, at least they can hear us and learn. So basically we prepared the same knowledge into different formats.

Agarwal believes teachers also learn from students.

What prepared me for this was the fact that I had been a part of both Skill India and Digital India programmes of the government. Thus, I understood the technical aspects of e-learning.

ALSO READ: ‘Online Classes, Pubg And Web Series…’

Our students have classes from 8 am to 2 pm. We have around 60 students in our college and seven-eight teachers, and we keep brainstorming about how we can make learning more accessible. Since I serve as both the Principal as well as the Social Sciences teacher, I ensure that the children can come up to me regarding any query they have about the subject. I have kept some time aside to answer their queries related to Coronavirus or any other important social issues. Many a time students surprise me with their ideas. Some of them who have access to smart phones at times send us some interesting links and we learn from them.

Thankfully the electricity situation in UP has improved so the students face no problem in keeping their phones charged for classes.

A lot of people are currently praising the Kerala government’s idea of taking education to children who don’t have access to internet through television, but very few know that the HRD ministry had already taken this initiative like SWAYAM Prabha.

For many years (2008-2014), I was involved in teaching children of manual scavengers. Teaching is a deeply fulfilling task and Coronavirus has taught us the importance of being well-informed and adaptive in the face of uncertainty.