The first day of online classes for school students passed off without major glitches in the northern districts. Children from coastal and tribal areas of in some parts of the region, however, could not make use of the online facility.
Barring reports of slow Internet connectivity and power disruption in a few places, the e-classes in Kozhikode concluded on the first day without any major trouble.
Mohammed Tholhath, a Plus Two student in humanities stream at Chendamangallur Higher Secondary School, said there was not much of a problem in comprehending the subjects. He had English classes in the morning and geography in the evening. “WhatsApp groups had been created for each class, where we are being given general information by teachers. General doubts could be cleared there itself or we can contact the teacher directly,” he said.
N.K. Zenha Mehrin, Class 4 student of G.M.L.P. School, Naduvannur, found the English class on Monday very effective as the subject was presented in a simple way. There were illustrations to support the narration, she said. Her father, N.K. Saleem, a teacher himself, said that there was no room for lack of clarity while presenting different subjects on the first day.
Meanwhile, Samagra Shiksha Keralam district coordinator A.K. Abdul Hakeem said that online meetings could be held from June 3 to make these classes more effective. The help of resource persons had been sought to ensure that differently-abled students were given special attention.
Connectivity issues
Heavy rain and problems in Internet connection disrupted the streaming of the online classes in Kannur district on Monday. While a large number of students attended the online classes streamed on Victers Channel and others on their computers and mobiles, many students encountered difficulties due to disruption in Internet connection and lack of access to cable or dish networks.
For a student of Thotada high school, having no access to either Internet and disruption of the channel due to heavy rain caused problems. A resident of the Samajwadi Colony in Kannur town, she said though her father had an Android mobile, she could not watch the classes as her father, who is a labourer, had taken the phone away at work.
Amijith, a 9th standard student in Sree Narayanan Trust Higher Secondary School, said he had received no information about his classes and hence he did not watch the channel. He said that his television was disconnected as they could not pay the subcription charges.
The District Level Protection Committee of Public Education decided to formulate measures to ensure classes at home for school students in the district. District panchayat president K.V. Sumesh said they were planning to ensure that maximum number of students sit in their own homes or neighbourhoods and attend classes. He also said the necessary arrangements would be made by Saturday in collaboration with the local bodies, education department, tribal department, library council and youth welfare board.
A trial of online classes is taking place this week. The Department of Public Education has decided to rectify the shortcomings and start classes from next week, he observed. Necessary steps would be taken with the initiative of local authorities to provide TV sets for students from tribal area.
Kannada medium
As teachers took classes for students in Malayalam and English languages, those living in the border areas of Kasaragod district who mostly speak Kannada and Tulu, were in a fix. There are about 40,000 students who are studying in 180 Kannada medium schools in the district.
Except for the students of ninth and tenth standards who were taught maths and biology in Kannada, the rest of the students were unaware and had no information about when their classes would start.
Besides, the classes uploaded on YouTube compounded the problem as many had no access to smartphones or Internet. There were no Kannada medium classes available on Victers Channel.
Guru, a resident of Kannangolu, which is a tribal colony in the border area, said the tribal students in the area had received no information from the school and had no Internet or television channel through which they could access the classes. He said that his son Abhishek who was studying in the third standard. Classes were conducted in Malayalam and he cold not follow Malayalam or English.
Assistant Education Officer Yathish Kumar Rai, Kumbala, said that the groundwork for preparing the video in Kannada was in the process. Since many students were in Kannada medium schools, KITE was separately recording the classes in Kannada. For other classes, the videos would be completed by 8 June, he claimed.
In Malappuram
Over seven lakh children in Malappuram district experienced the online school re-opening on Monday. Deputy Director of Education (DDE) K.S. Kusumam said around 64,000 children could not make use of the online facility in the district. Most of them were in the coastal and tribal regions of the district.
The DDE has convened a meeting of civic and education officials on Tuesday to find ways to reach out to the 64,000 children without Internet access. “We will chalk out plans to reach out to them with the help of respective civic officials. We will include all of them,” said Ms. Kusumam.
There are nearly eight lakh children of school-going age in Malappuram district. Ms. Kusumam said none had been left out of school enrolment.