The educationalist is, however, perturbed by the fact that not all of her students might be able to avail the facility.

JAYA BHARDWAJ, PRINCIPAL (HANSRAJ PUBLIC SCHOOL)

“It was in the first month of this year that I first came to know about this Covid-19 contagion,” Bhardwaj harks back. “But back then, I did not expect the closure of schools and colleges as a measure to prevent the spread of the highly contagious over coronavirus.”

In order to plug the education gap, the school principal says that the teachers have turned to taking virtual classes. “Our teachers have seamlessly shifted to online applications like Google Classroom, ZOOM Cloud,Skype, WhatsApp and mail, among others.” While the classrooms are not bustling with students anymore, she says that the school management is pulling out all stops to ensure that there is no academic loss. “We already started taking these online classes in the dying days of last month. Our teaching faculty has been trained on the use of technology in delivering lectures. While some network issues are bound to exist, I have been working in tandem with the IT department of our school to ensure that the experience is smooth and effective.”

The educationalist is, however, perturbed by the fact that not all of her students might be able to avail the facility. “I am most concerned about the students hailing from economically weaker sections, admitted under article 134-A. Since they might not have access to this technology, they might be missing out on some valuable lessons.”

“While it is true that many of the plans scheduled as per the yearly school almanac have been deferred, owing to the nationwide clampdown, but if that is what it takes to keep our children out of the harm’s way, then I am all for it.” Bhardwaj opines, “academic plans should be more flexible in nature. There should always be some room for change.”