Teachers of government and government-aided schools continue to register their attendance at their institutions, much against popular opinion in the wake of government instructions on keeping the schools closed for students.
Now that the practical exams have been completed for Plus Two students, only teachers register their attendance on a daily basis, and are required to sit through the entire day and reach out to students of lower classes by phone to ensure their viewing of the teaching sessions on bridge-course telecast through the Kalvi TV channel, run by the school education department.
“here is no instruction from the government as yet on whether the teachers could work from home,” an official said.
Citing the rise in COVID infection among their fraternity, teachers' associations approached government authorities for permission to work from home, but were reportedly told that their request could not be complied with since they had remained at home for most part of the academic year.
Those handling higher secondary classes are trying their best to keep the students engaged through online classes, the official said.
Last year, the Department of School Education, in its guidelines for digital/ online education, has mentioned the requirement for computer/smart phone/smart TV for fully online mode; availability of computer/smart phone even without regular Internet connectivity for partially online mode; and television and radio as offline mode for those in places where the bandwidth is very less for operating smart devices.
The concept of Veetupalli (school at home) envisages telecast of video lessons as per time table through Kalvi TV run by the School Education Department.
For students of Plus Two, the video lessons prepared by SCERT have been transferred to their laptops through hi-tech labs in schools to facilitate learning at home. Video lessons are also made available through private TV channels from last August.
Teachers, as per the guidelines, are required to have individual rapport with students. School heads are expected to conduct an informal survey to identify ICT facilities at home for each child, for analysis by teachers in order to create differentiated plans, official sources said.
School heads are also expected to facilitate ICT infrastructure for teachers, but they seldom do that, a representative of a teachers' association complained.
Class-wise instant messaging groups have been formed for smooth communication with teachers, parents and students. For lower classes, the parents communicate on behalf of students.
Rather than rushing for the sake of completing of syllabus, focus on consolidation of learning has been advocated, sources said.
