In a group of five, each Class IX and X student have assembled for their mathematics class. Not in their school, not on their smartphones, but in an open ground in Ghatkopar West. Facing a batch of three Class X students from S G Barve Municipal School, maths teacher Gajanan Ghate is reviewing the worksheet given last week. Six feet away, another group of three students are getting their science homework reviewed. The muddy municipal ground, now also home to Ganesh immersion collection point and a parking lot for autorickshaws, is converted into a new open-air classroom twice a week for nearly 100 Class IX and X students who do not have access to virtual learning. While the doors of most schools in the city are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this open-air classroom was born out of the initiative taken by school Principal Ambarsing Magar. Twice a week, in different batches, Class IX and X students gather at the ground, located between the two hillocks, where most of the students of the school stay. The open-air programme was initially meant for those who had trouble logging in to their virtual classes due to lack of devices or connectivity. The response has been encouraging with many more children joining in. “Irrespective of these open-air classes, our teachers take online classes every day. For over an hour on Tuesday and Friday, in different corners of the ground, all teachers solve queries, check worksheets of students enrolled in our school. It is just like a regular school, except that the children are not confined to a room or a building and are not sitting in large groups. The initiative began keeping in mind that Class X students will seek admission in junior colleges next year,” said Magar, the principal. According to a recent UNICEF research conducted in India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a substantial proportion of students and their parents have reported that students have learned significantly less compared to the pre-pandemic times. In India, 80 per cent of the children aged 14-18 years reported lower levels of learning than when they are present physically in school. Ghate, the maths teacher, said, “Due to virtual learning for the last one year, students have lost the skill to write. We also saw a dip in their confidence levels. The Class X board exam will be a written exam and not a virtual one. Smart phone learning had made these students lazy and imparted no social skills. It took us over three months to improve their writing and problem-solving skills.” Payal Lihinar is among 14 and 16-year-olds sitting along with her friend to get her worksheet checked on the ground. “There is only one phone in the house, which my mother takes with her. I could not attend classes. And whenever I could attend, I could not follow what was being taught,” said Payal. There are still two classmates of Payal, who are not regular. Magar inquires about them and requests the students to take him to meet the classmates’ parents. There are 302 Class IX and X students enrolled in the school. During assessment, it was found that nearly 20-30 per cent of the students did not join the online classes last year, and those who joined were not attentive. Following the drop in attendance, Magar, along with his teachers, trekked to the students' houses, knocking on doors to find out the reason. Through regular visits and counselling, those who had access to smart phones joined online classes. Last year, teachers also took individual sessions for the children at their houses to bring them back to learning. The teachers said that the parents of most of these children are daily wage earners or domestic helps who cannot afford smart phones for children to access virtual learning. Many of those who did take them to work. And those who have smart phones, are struggling with connectivity issues or sharing the mobile phones with their siblings. Keeping this in mind, the school also conducts online classes for over an hour at 7 am and post 7 pm. Wrapping up the classes for the day, Magar instructs all students to directly head home.
