VILLUPURAM: With the pandemic derailing the school schedules of children, many teachers are coming up with innovative ways to help children learn from home. Hemalatha, a Tamil teacher at S Kunathur Government Higher Secondary School in Gingee, is one of them.
She has saved all her video lessons for the academic year in pen drives so that children can take her classes even without internet connection. “Due to the pandemic, students are staying away from schools and I was afraid that my students, who belong to rural areas, would forget their syllabus as the pandemic hasn’t entirely ended yet,” Hemalatha said.
In order to draw their attention to studies and help them learn even if they don’t have access to internet, Hemalatha saved her virtual classes, covering all 53 chapters and six essays of her Tamil subject, in 30 pen drives and distributed them directly to her students.
And fortunately for her, the age-old adage ‘where there is a will there is a way’ came true as a former student and robotic engineer, Shahil Hameed, stepped in to help with graphic designing of the lessons.
Explaining her rationale, she says,
“In most rural areas like our village, students mostly lack internet access. Further, they can use these USB drives anywhere by accessing a laptop, which must be available with college students in their areas.” Not surprisingly, Hemalatha received the Best Teacher Award from the State government in 2020.