SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Feb 23: With a two-year-long gap in education due to Covid 19, both government and private school students seem to have forgotten not only what they learnt in their classes but also their basics.
Most affected students due to the gap belong to government schools all over the state. Teachers say they might have to come up with a plan to cope up with such students and may also have to provide extra classes just to remind them of the basics. These students vary in classes, i.e., they may be of either class between 1 and 8.
Rekha, assistant teacher at Government Hindi Boys Middle School said, “We might have to begin from the very beginning in certain cases. We have plans to conduct an overall evaluation of students and then restart or help them cope up to mark as evaluation results may vary from different students.”
“Some time back, JAC had begun taking exams on a monthly basis to help us test students’ levels. Both these tests and online classes have helped us come to an idea of deterioration in students. However, these tests don’t matter as around 50 percent of students either can’t afford a phone or the regular data needed to conduct classes every day,” she added.
Rekha further said, “We have some students that have forgotten almost all the basic knowledge. Initially, during classes we had ‘Lakshya Pragati’ and ‘Subodh’ schemes, wherein we would take one hour classes of children in classes 5,6 and even higher in some cases, who could not even read Hindi or English properly. We would train them so that coping up with their regular education was somewhat easier. However, with Covid, even those classes have stopped. We fear for those students and are worried about what their level might be now.”
She added that JAC has conducted several surveys throughout the state and must know the depleting levels of knowledge in students. “We hope that either JAC comes up with a plan to help students or we are able to help students as I believe Mohalla Classes that were started during the lockdown have failed, either due to lack of space or parents not allowing children to come up in groups, even in open spaces.”
Rashmi Srivastava, teacher at Government Hindi Girls Middle School said, “We were organizing online classes for students throughout the lockdown. For such students that were not able to attend online classes due to financial reasons, we began organizing Mohalla classes in December-January. These are classes organized for a couple of hours for students of the nearby areas that are brought together in open areas like fields.”
Srivatsava further added, ‘Students have definitely suffered and the results are clearly visible in students of both private and government schools. We also helped a few students buy phones from the money provided for dresses and scholarships. Some students were also connected via one phone wherein the child that owned the phone would be given Rs 50 by the other student. A few students were then able to utilize online classes in such a manner while following Covid protocols. Some that had no way of connecting through the phone, were either called in fields outside or a couple of students were called at schools and helped cope up while following all Covid norms.”
“Monthly tests by JAC were also an opportunity for us to understand the extent to which the children needed help. We gave them extra classes depending on the results. We are also expecting deterioration in students with respect to the education but it is not up to us to form a plan to manage it and help students. We hope that JAC helps us with this,” she further added. She further said that through Mid-Day Meals and online classes they have had regular interactions with students but the students of 6, 7 and 8 are better. “We, however, fear for those below class 5,” she said.
