CHENNAI: After a year of lockdown and online classes, teachers say that the need of the hour is to move away from exam-based rote learning to an interactive discussion-based learning system. Representatives of several schools shared with Express that creative strategies were used to ensure that the learning process was not disrupted in urban centres.
With public exams scheduled only for class 12 students in the State board, and class 10 and 12 students in the CBSE and other boards, students in other classes have been promoted without any standardised final exams. With no uniform assessment model in place, teachers say that the most effective strategy to reduce learning gap was to move away from textbooks, and in turn implement strategies to engage with children.
A montessori teacher from a Chennai Corporation School said that many of her students did not have access to technology. “I spoke to their parents and detailed methods to teach kindergarten students numbers and alphabets. For instance, everyday objects from the kitchen and garden can be used to teach them the basics. Online classes anyway don’t benefit kindergarten children,” she said.
Noting that unit tests, midterms and exams were held online too, Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association president R Visalakshi said, “At one point we realised that the exams were not enough. It was important to understand what students actually knew. Then we devised strategies to hold discussions.”
Recalling how the schools were caught off-guard when the pandemic struck, Sishya School, Hosur, principal Vasanthi Thiagrajan said that eventually we developed strategies for different age-groups. “For kindergarten students, we decided not to have more than half-an-hour of pre-recorded classes. While we had five hours of online classes for students in higher classes, we started every class with yoga and mindful meditation,” she added.