RANCHI: With only 33 per cent of 42 lakh school students in Jharkhand connected through WhatsApp for online classes, the government has found an innovative solution so that the not-so-privileged children do not miss out on lessons.
Government school teachers will now ‘adopt’ such students who don’t have access to smartphones or internet connection at homes and will visit them every week to make digital content available to them.
The teachers will also guide these students personally so thats they don’t lag behind their classmates who get regular access to the digital contents.
The School Education and Literacy Department has a prepared the SOP in this regard which is to be presented before the state government for approval.
But, some schools in the remote villages in districts like Dumka and Jamtara have already adopted this concept.
“Talks are on the concept of ‘mohalla class’ under which teachers weekly hold classes with small groups of students every week,” said an official.
Under this initiative, teachers will also be in a position to evaluate the progress of a child, which is not possible under the current arrangements where students are being provided content on WhatsApp, he said.
Students will be distributed equally and put under specific teachers, who will further divide them in separate groups in order to guide them.
Sham Kishore Gandhi, principal of Bankathi Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya, said they have been doing it for the last several months.
“In Dumka itself, more than 500 schools have been holding such classes at different locations in small groups following social distancing norms,” said Gandhi. The initiative was also hailed by NITI Ayog in a tweet.