Teachers in a bind over simultaneous online and offline teaching

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 14

The decision to continue offline as well as online teaching after reopening of schools from Classes V to XII has thrown a huge challenge for teachers.

As the number of students attending regular classes is quite low, online classes need to be continued. As a result, teachers have to take offline as well as online classes which is causing immense pressure on them.

Condemning the failure of the government to provide a concrete policy and strategy to cope with the situation, the Democratic Teachers’ Front has decided to hold protest against the Education Department.

“The Education Department has failed to identify the roadblocks in implementing online mode of education at the grassroots level and adding to the burden, it now wants teachers to continue offline classes when only a few students are attending regular classes in schools,” said Ashwini Awasthi, district chief, Democratic Teachers’ Front.

He said, “Right from the beginning, online teaching has been a big challenge, especially in rural areas. Teachers tried to make optimum use of buddy groups, but that does not ensure accuracy. The current situation is not suitable for students and teachers.”

The buddy group method was introduced as a solution to problem of inaccessibility, but it has limited reach. “The buddy groups formed at various levels created small groups of students, who used to get help from a child having mobile phone, usually the head of the group. But that is not possible in case of a large group as only a small number of them respond. Another way of reaching out to students was to work at village level and call them in small groups to share weekly lessons. In any case, the entire situation has been quite challenging for teachers,” shared a teacher of the Government School, Bhoewali.

Another teacher from the Government School, Hathi Gate, said, “The focus has shifted to board classes after the department announced datesheet. What about students of other classes? To conduct regular class in morning and later conduct same classes online is not practical as it disturbs schedule of both sessions.”