RANIPET: A group of 15 children, wearing masks with books on their lap, sit maintaining social distance and listen to their teacher sitting at a distance from them. This is no school functioning during the pandemic, but a small habitation at an Irula colony located in Nemili block of Ranipet district.
Stories of students, who are unable to afford for a smartphone or TV set to watch Kalvi Tholaikatchi, missing online classes aren’t new. In a bid to ensure that children studying in Panchayat Union Middle School in Asanellikuppam do not suffer such a fate, headmaster P Mahesh has been visiting them to take classes.
“I have been visiting the Irula Colony twice a week, in July and August, to take classes so that they aren’t left behind,” says Mahesh. Another teacher working in a primary school in Kattukandigai, A Ramesh, joins him and the duo trudge their way through narrow pathways to reach out to the disadvantaged students.
D Ilaiyaraja, working in the Panchayat Union Primary School located in Konthangarai, has been reaching out to the students since June. “Five students from Vellaikulam do not have access to mobile phones. So, I have been visiting their village to take classes for them,” he says. These teachers aren’t alone in helping disadvantaged kids. Local youth have also come forward to lend their mobile phones for studying.