Manish Sisodia asks schools to fill gaps in contacting students for remote classes

Heads of schools and education department officials have attributed this to faulty or incomplete data forwarded to them by corporation schools, making it difficult to contact students and their families. Usually, every year, after the transfer takes place, parents visit the school to submit documents and share other details, which could not happen  this year due to the Covid pandemic.

Sisodia reviewed the conduct of remote learning in the 32 schools located in zone 25 – which includes schools in areas such as Jangpura, Joga Bai, and Sarai Kale Khan – last week. Data for the zone showed that almost 35% of students enrolled in class VI could not be contacted through WhatsApp or other modes. While 62% students in class received assignments through WhatsApp that week, 66% of those students reverted with completed assignments. The gaps in contacting and getting students to engage is largest in class VI. The closest behind it is class VII, where 17% of students are unreachable.

“Students who are on WhatsApp but not responding are a grey area. They need to be worked on by individual teachers at the classroom level. It will hardly be 4-5 students per classroom… But class VI is very important, and we need to find out exactly how many students who cannot be contacted are from MCD schools. We haven’t received thorough data from their side. If students from these schools cannot be traced, zonal officials and heads of schools must get in touch with MCD authorities,” said Sisodia.

Parents also came forward with issues and suggestions to take remote learning forward. The elder sister of a Class X student suggested that monthly Zoom meetings be conducted by schools with parents, so that parents can be directly in touch and be fully aware of teaching-learning activities. A parent of a Class XII student, who is also a teacher at the school, said while remote learning is good, there is a need to bring Class XII students to school in limited ways, such as half the children on every alternate days.