Rural teachers fight a losing battle to keep kids in ‘class’

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Rural teachers fight a losing battle to keep kids in ‘class’

In Bihar alone 1.4 crore students are without digital devices. To make sure education reaches all, teachers are trying everything from evening classes to phone recharges

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

11.07.2021 

With lockdowns shutting schools across the country, students have struggled to access remote learning. In some places, they wait for their parents to return from work so that they can access lessons sent by the teacher on WhatsApp. Some land up at neighbours’ homes asking to use their smartphones. Others watch non-interactive recorded lessons on TV. But the struggle isn’t theirs alone.

Teachers across rural India spoke about how they were attempting to ensure their students didn’t fall behind with measures that range from open-air classes to recharging phones.

Biswajeet Bodo, head teacher of Jugal High School in Bamunpukhuru village in Assam’s Tezpur district, and his colleagues have been conducting classes in open spaces or in Nam Ghars, places of congregational worship, since only around 150 of the 480 students in the school have access to smartphones.

“During the first wave of Covid, we picked five venues in five villages around the school, called the students of that particular area and taught them in the open. But that had to stop as the number of cases was very high in the second wave,” Bodo said. “Then we made arrangements with families that have mobile phones to lend them for 90 minutes to those who don’t have devices,” he said.

The lack of digital devices among students was acknowledged by the education ministry in a submission on six states to a parliamentary standing committee last month (see box). In states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, nearly 70% of students don’t have access to a digital device. In Bihar, as many as 1.4 crore or 38% don’t have a device.

Teachers are trying their best to be flexible. Nasim Ahmad, who heads an Urdu medium primary school in the Khijurtoli village near Ranchi, said that 100 of the 186 students have access to their parents’ mobile phones. “We have two-hour open-air classes for those without phones. For those who do, we conduct classes from 7 pm onwards, after their parents return from work,” he said.

Anil Kumar Pradhan, who teaches in a government school in the Lahanda village of Odisha’s Sundargarh district, said that even when students had access to a smartphone, they didn’t have access to the internet. “So, once a week we visited their homes to teach them whatever is possible,” he said.

Even in a state like Kerala, that ranks high on development indicators, internet access has been a problem in rural areas. Michael Sebastian, from the organisation Samagra Siksha Kerala in Idukki, said students in the state have been watching classes that are aired on television. But in Idukki, where there are many tribal hamlets, many homes don’t have continuous power supply.

Sebastian said they set up public study centres where education volunteers can help the children. “More than 1,000 students, including the tea estate workers’ children, attend TV classes in these public study centres,” he said.

OUT-OF-REACH RECHARGES

Even when there’s a phone and internet, there are hurdles like lack of money. “The parents told us when there is no food in the house how can they recharge the phones? There are many children whom we assisted by recharging their parents’ mobile phones,” said Ahmad, the teacher from Jharkhand.

In Andhra Pradesh, Satnarayan Sastry said that the state government had deposited Rs 15,000 in the bank accounts of mothers whose children are enrolled in the schools but only a few bought phones with the money. “The government offered a laptop or Rs 15,000, and a majority opted for the money. But that money was mostly spent on other essential things as many don’t even have enough for food,” he said.

GETTING THEM BACK IN SCHOOL

Most teachers also admitted that there is a growing learning gap with students’ performance declining significantly. Educationist and former CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly pointed out that online education is an interim measure and not a real education. “Learning loss can be addressed through innovative measures such as SMSes which assign students engaging activities,” he said.

Then there is the problem of dropouts. The education ministry said nearly 55 lakh children are out of school just in the two states of Jharkhand and UP. Educationist Meeta Sengupta said dropout rate can be reversed with school-wapsi or Back to School programmes. “This is an opportunity to get schooling right, where schools reach children, rather than forcing children to come into regimented schooling,” she said.

BRIDGING THE GAP: With no internet or digital devices, students are forced to attend classes in the open in Odisha’s Sundargarh district