During the two years of the pandemic, smartphones and laptops were the only means of learning for children as classes went virtual. This led to increased screen time for children.
Cut to the present day, this academic year, schools are taking extra measures and notifying parents to limit the screen time for students by trying to reduce the reliance on gadgets as much as possible.
Many school managements started taking these steps after parents complained that their children were misusing phones citing educational reasons.
Like Sujatha S.K, mother of a ninth grader in Banashankari, says, “My son is very interested in watching sports and during the lockdown he developed the habit of watching web series also. When he plugged in the earphones and watched videos on the phone, I used to assume that it was a class recording or academic video. One day, I just sat down to watch it with him when I realised he was watching a web series”.
There were other parents who had similar experiences which prompted them to take the matter to the school authorities. “During the lockdown, we had no option but to expose them to screens for learning. If they are going back to school now, then what is the need for sending homeworks and study materials on WhatsApp or other apps? This is why I appealed to my son’s school to stop such communication,” said Anand B.S. father of a third grader.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools, said that as students started coming back to schools, most teachers stopped using virtual means for any aspect of learning.
“All the activities happen in classrooms only. Moreover, some schools have made use of some mobile applications where students can log in to for educational purposes and study. But with this app, both schools and parents can track the exact timings of usage of the app,” he said.
Some schools also called for a meeting of parents at the beginning of the academic year to inform them of the new rules. “We had a meeting and we told them that any communication from the school will only be sent to the parents’ numbers. Unless there is any announcement, there is no need really to communicate through phones now. For other learning purposes, we have employed the app which can be tracked by parents,” said Mahesh, principal, Sunrise Public School. He added that no complaints have been received after that.
While most schools began full-fledged offline classes this year, some had conducted physical classes for a period of one or two months last year. Even then, these kinds of complaints had come in from parents.
“There surely was a problem of misuse of phones last year, especially since some of the communication from school was still happening through virtual means. We called for a meeting immediately and now, the parents are watchful,” said Saraswathi, principal at Vasavi Vidyanikethan, in Vishveshwara Puram.
Apart from these meetings, schools have started giving projects and assignments which do not need students to hit up the Internet. They are trying to get students to use the resources available at school libraries and labs.
“We are encouraging students to finish their projects within class hours only. If they need additional information, we ask them to use the computer lab available at school (where they will be monitored). We do not even want them to go to cybercentres for projects like they used to before,” said Venugopal, principal, Sri Sharada Vidya Mandira in Peenya.
