KOCHI: With online classes which do not provide any room for personal connect between teachers and students becoming the new normal in the prevailing pandemic scenario, a project called ‘Oonjal’ is helping students stay motivated and to establish a rapport with teachers. Oonjal is a joint initiative by Ettumanoor municipality, Goverment TTI, Ettumanoor, chamber of commerce and a group of teachers led by teacher educator Jayakumar S.
“The goal is to keep the motivation levels of students high so that they can excel in studies,” said Jayakumar S, who is also a master trainer with the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). The pandemic has forced students to stay back home and continue the learning via online platforms and VICTERS TV channel . “It has become difficult for teachers to identify the grasping level of students. Also, under the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2015, which has listed quality education as the fourth parameter, it is necessary to train students to become global citizens,” he said.
Hence, finding out whether students have grasped the basics is pretty crucial.“This will enable them to do well anywhere,” he said. Under Oonjal, around 1,800 students belonging to the Lower Primary, Upper Primary and High School sections of 13 schools within the Ettumanoor municipality limits, were tested for their knowledge in basic mathematics, said Jayakumar, adding, “The concept was to help the students swing high just like an Oonjal”.
Ganesh Ettumanoor, chairman of the municipality’s Education Standing Committee, said the students were tested for the mathematical concept of ‘greater than and less than’. “ It has to be pointed out here that the project was implemented even before the education department started providing worksheets to students,” he said. According to him, four questions had been put to each student.
“And the level of difficulty of the questions was decided on the basis of the respective class. If the student answered two out of the four questions, it was deemed that they had a good grasp of basics in Mathematics,” said Ganesh. Of the total 1,816 students, 1,613 took part.