VIJAYAWADA: Keeping children busy throughout the day during the ongoing lockdown has become a Herculean task for parents.
In such a situation, some private schools have come as a saving grace by conducting online classes so that students are constructively engaged for a few hours of the day.
A few schools conduct online classes at a particular time daily, while others upload daily worksheets, lessons and assignments for their students. Depending on the seniority of the kids, different activities are made available.
“My daughter, Bharathi, a class 2 student, was promoted in the wake of coronavirus. Her teachers regularly upload worksheets on different subjects daily on the school website, which she has to solve and re-upload the file on the website within a given time limit,” Mrudula said. “These exercises keep my daughter busy for at least two hours a day.”
She added: “I am worried about my son, who will take his class 10 board exam this year. Usually, his classes begin in April and he gets a short break of 10 to 15 days in May-end. To cover up for the lost time and ensure that the students don’t face difficulty, his teachers have uploaded some educational videos. On the basis of these videos, students are given worksheets that must be solved and re-uploaded on the website. To ensure that the students have studied properly, an exam will be conducted as soon as the school reopens,” she said.
Mrudula’s son Shripada observed, “It is good that my time is not wasted. If not for the online classes, I would be in a quandary as to how to spend time. Online classes go on for at least four hours a day.” Meanwhile, a majority of the students in the city do not have such online sessions. For them, several online learning platforms such Byjus, Unacademy and Goodreads have come to the rescue. However, the ongoing lockdown has left the students of 45,000 government schools in the lurch. Several bridge courses to increase the students’ learning capabilities have been scheduled. Many of these which had already begun were stopped forcing the students to sit ideal at home.
As a majority of children studying in the government schools belong to below poverty line (BPL), it is very difficult to conduct online sessions for them. “Even if we conduct online classes for them, they don’t have the equipment at home to take them,” school education regulation commission secretary Samabasiva Reddy said.