Dandwal: Since the outbreak of coronavirus, schools and educational institutions have remained closed. This development has disrupted the education of kids across the world and India is not an exemption to the problem. Online classes have become the order of the day. But then what happens to those kids who live in areas where the net connectivity is poor. Also in a country like India, there are a huge number of families who cannot afford a smartphone (an essential requirement for online classes).
Well there are some who have found an option. One overcast morning in a farming village in Maharashtra, a group of schoolchildren sat on the mud floor of a wooden shed for their first class in months. Yes, they maintained social distancing. There was no teacher, just a voice from a loudspeaker.
The recorded lessons form part of an initiative by an Indian non-profit organistaion. The programme is spread over six villages and aims to reach 1,000 students denied formal classes since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close four months ago.
The children sang rhymes and answered questions, with some of them speaking of the loudspeaker as ‘Speaker Brother’ or ‘Speaker Sister’. “I love studying with ‘Speaker Brother’,” said Jyoti, a gleeful 11-year-old girl who attended one session.
The volunteers of the organisation carried this loudspeaker system of education through villages in Maharashtra where children awaiting its arrival had gathered at designated, socially-distanced spots.
We wondered if children and their parents would accept a loudspeaker as their teacher,” said Shraddha Shringarpure. She is the head of the ‘Diganta Swaraj Foundation’, which has done development work for more than a decade among tribal villages in the region.
But response to the programme, called ‘Bolki Shaala’ or ‘Spoken School’ in Marathi language, has been encouraging, Shringarpure informed. It reaches children who are usually the first in their families to go to school. The content covers part of the school curriculum, as well as social skills and English language lessons. “These kids have no guidance from their family, they are on their own,” Shringarpure said.
She informed that in places like this village of Dandwal, where telecom networks are poor and power supply erratic, many children have gone months without opening schoolbooks.
Parents like Sangeeta Yele, who hope for better lives for their children, are pushing them to attend the mobile classes. “As the school is closed, my son used to wander in the forests,” said Yele. “‘Bolki Shaala’ has reached our village and now my son has started studying. I am happy. It gives me happiness that my son can now sing songs and narrate stories,” she added.