The teacher enters the ‘classroom’, orders her ‘students’ to put on face masks, pours hand sanitiser for cleaning and goes about explaining the human digestive system on a makeshift wood board. Little Sneha is a sixth grader of RK Puram social welfare school and is teaching younger children in her locality.
Elsewhere, Keerti, another sixth grader (social welfare school, Medchal), is telling folk tales. Tejaswaini, who finished her 10th and her sister Neeraja, ninth class, take turns to take quizzes, words building, debates and other activities from their home verandah at Chandanagar, so does another of their friend N. Deepti - all from social welfare school, Gowlidoddi.
These enterprising ‘teacher’ children are among 50,000 from Telangana empowered to keep their fellow younger students, from the social welfare and tribal welfare schools, in touch with academics, in the absence of regular schooling due to COVID-19. Close to 10,000 Village Learning Centres (VLCs) were formed with chosen student leaders tasked to teach the young with monitoring by teachers for a couple of hours daily, in their homes, community halls or under a tree.
It certainly is a big deal for these children from the underprivileged sections of the society where even access to a smartphone is a luxury. Usually, by this time Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) and Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TTWREIS) will have about 1.5 lakh students on its rolls - boys and girls from classes five to plus two, immersed in academic and extra-curricular activities in 268 (SW) and 179 (TW) hostels with thousands of children appearing for the entrance examination for the entry level of fifth class.
These hostels providing academics with advanced labs, extra-curricular activities, sports, uniforms, nutritious food, accommodation, health check-ups, psychological counselling free of cost for students, mostly girls, by the government, have become popular.
“Our teachers planned and prepared to keep our children involved in studies and other activities from summer itself. Wherever parents cooperated - permitted children to teach other kids and go to neighbours - we got them access to study material. It cannot replace classroom lectures, but will keep them engaged,” says principal of Gowlidoddi school A. Sarada.
Apart from using of T-SAT and Doordarshan (Yadagiri) to relay classes through satellite TV, innovative short bursts of lessons of three to five minutes each were made and relayed through pen drives and from smart phones borrowed from community leaders and others.
“We have super students, bright in studies and with leadership qualities, chosen to keep their younger brothers and sisters busy for a few hours daily with lessons, real life examples, stories, etc. People have opened their homes to allow us to hold these classes. Even churches and temples too are being used,” explains Secretary R.S. Praveen Kumar.
Text and note books were supplied to 90% children and round the clock counselling/medical centre (9705497055) has been made available for any assistance including COVID-19 related issues, says the IPS officer. Only hitch is - “It is fun to teach the young as I act just like my teacher, but we are missing our friends and the fun at the schools,” says Tejashwini, in a sad tone.
