PANAJI
The usual date of school reopening coinciding with the onset of monsoons, in the first week of June, has been postponed this year amid the pandemic. The schools are going to reopen on June 21, but for the teachers, there is a general reaction among most about the instruction from the education department to come to their respective schools to take online classes.
“Isn’t it the same, if we take classes from school or home, because anyway students will be in their respective homes. So why take risk of travelling to school daily, just to sit in an empty classroom and teach the walls?” asked a teacher from a private school in Margao.
“When the schools are open, the helpers, peons, non-teaching staff and we teachers will be together. If the government wants us to stay safe, and not to gather at one place to avoid the spread of Covid, then why are we asked to come to school?” she questions.
Most of the teachers have now acquainted themselves with the procedures of online classes, Google Meet, Zoom meetings, and find it much easier to teach from their homes, with uninterrupted internet and other facilities. However, a senior drawing teacher from a government school in the port town expressed his concern about teaching his migrant students how to draw, that too, online.
“Many of our students have gone to their homes in UP and other States with their parents, who have lost their jobs, and had no money to pay rent and buy groceries. We are hoping that the school will have at least those who come back, or who are still in Goa. But my question still remains unanswered, how can physical education, drawing, practical be taught online,” says the perplexed teacher.
Admissions in some of the private schools have started, albeit online.
Teachers, who have been assigned to conduct these interviews with the tiny tots, are doing it from either schools or their homes.
‘Can you spell the word cat?’ ‘Can you add two and two?’ ‘And is your mom or dad sitting next to you?’ “ Teachers are seen asking such questions to the confused children, who are made to sit before the computer and answer these questions, without the help of their parents.
“It would be a real torture for my six-year-old to attend school online,” lamented Radhika Naik, a working mother, who is also working from home. “How am I going to balance between my office work and help my child attend her online classes, at the same time?” she asks.
While, the enthusiasm and the eagerness to join school dampened by the pandemic, some parents are reluctant to send their wards physically to the school. “As long as the schools are conducting classes online, we don’t mind. We don’t want to send our children out to school, and take risks,” confessed a parent, whose child will be taking admission to Class 5 this year.
