Following the closure of schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19, institutions across the city have turned to video lessons and worksheets, recommending fun activities to keep the students engaged.
With a ‘learning continuity plan’ in place, students from K.C. High International School are sent work by their teachers, every morning, online, including assignments and fun activities. “Online classes too are being conducted through Google Hangouts Meet. At the end of the day, students are expected to fill in an end-of the-day learning form, which will give us an insight into how effective their online learning has been,” said Sindu Suneel, deputy head of the school.
The school, however, is keen on ensuring that the online sessions are not just focussed on rushing to complete the curriculum or readying the children for exams. Michael Purcell, head of school, in a live facebook video, addressed parents and students. He said that they wanted to stay connected with the student community.
“While we’ve addressed several student queries on COVID-19 through a video session with a doctor, we will also hold a special class on epidemiology on Friday,” Ms. Sindu added.
Students of SRM Public School, Guduvanchery, have been completing their assessments online, and K.R. Maalathi, adviser to the school, said that the parents had been extremely keen on ensuring that their children were kept engaged with the help of the school. “Platforms such as Moodle and Google classroom are helping teachers connect with the students. If schools remain closed in April as well, we can continue online classes through apps and web portals,” she added.
Balaji Sampath, founder, AhaGuru, said that nearly eight schools from the city would be taking up online mathematics classes for Class X students, who will be taking up boards in 2021. “We have given every school a separate login for our website, where video classes will be hosted and students will attend two sessions every week. Along with the students, we have asked maths teachers to login and attend the session as well,” he explained.
Bala Vidya Mandir is among schools that have signed up for the online classes, and Srinivasa Raghavan, principal, said that the students attended a session online on Thursday. “We have been training teachers for the last six months to effectively conduct classes online and this was done to supplement regular teaching. However, we are now prepared to take classes online with our own teachers in April if schools continue to be closed,” he said.
