RANCHI: With most of the children having no access to smartphones to take online classes, teachers of this tribal-dominated village in Dumka have transformed the entire village into a classroom where walls serve as blackboards on which students solve assignments given by teachers through loudspeakers.
All the children enrolled with ‘Utkramit Madhya Vidyalaya’ at Dumarthar village under Jarmundi Block of Dumka are getting benefits of the initiative taken by the school principal Sapan Kumar where teachers give assignment on loudspeaker and students solve them on "blackboards".
Under this arrangement, children sit on the platforms made outside their homes under the thatched roofs to protect the mud-wall from rainwater and carry out tasks given by the teachers on the "blackboards". To ensure that social distancing is maintained, teachers explain doubts through loudspeakers.
The initiative has been taken by the principal in the wake of the fact that most of the students enrolled in his school do not have access to smartphones. As per the official data, WhatsApp classes being conducted by the School Education and Literacy department are reachable only to 19 per cent of 42 lakh students in Jharkhand.
“As most of the children do not have access to smartphones due to which they were not getting benefits of Digi-Sath (Online classes on WhatsApp), we were facing problems in teaching them.
Given the fact that the future of 295 children was at stake, I was not able to sleep properly. All of a sudden, it came in my mind that why not go their doorstep and teach them there,” said the Principal. He held a meeting with the parents following which Kumar succeeded in convincing them, he added.
“We named it ‘Shiksha Aapke Dwar-Samudai Ke Saath’ and decided painted blackboards on the doorsteps of all the students. Besides covering the content provided on Digi-Sath, we also able to cover the syllabus through this programme,” said the Kumar. Now, every child has his own chalk, duster, and blackboard. The students who do not understand the lesson write it down on the blackboard and the teachers solve them," he added.
Children are also happy with the initiative. “As I don’t have a smartphone, I was not able to take online classes through Digi-Sath, but now I am able to get all the contents provided on it. We are also being taught from books like regular classes,” said a student of class 7, Anjan Manjhi. "At the time when everything is closed down, ‘Shiksha Aapke Dwar- Samudai Ke Saath’ has proved to be a boon for students like us," he added.
Parvati Kumari, who studies in class 5 also said that they are able to solve their problems then and there through this arrangement. The village presently has more than 125 blackboards on its walls through which 205 children are being benefitted. Children of Class 4 to 8 are being covered under this porgramme while children of class 1-3 are advised to sit at their homes where some of the volunteers in the village guide them in case of any difficulty.