Gujarat: Kids climb atop trees, tanks for online classes

PALANPUR: At the first sight, it looks like these children in hamlets of Banaskantha district are engrossed in some mobile games. Perched atop water tanks, overseeing the villages, they are desperately searching for some clues. Indeed they are, but just that they are clueless on how to attend the online classes as there is no mobile network in these villages.
Some children, including girls, climb up the trees near their houses early in the morning and sit on the branches for hours, hoping to catch the mobile network. By the time, the mobiles can get some network, the classes are over.

In the hilly terrains of Amirgadh and Danta talukas, laptops and desktops are out of bounds for the poor. Many students do have access to smartphones, but they are of no use for education purposes, unlike their counterparts in cities and towns who enjoy an unbridled network.
“I climb on to rooftops and trees to get some mobile coverage. But it hardly helps. Studying online is impossible,” says Rahul Gamar, a student in Dhanpura village.
The situation prevails in nearly 15 villages of the two talukas.
“Our school is teaching online but there is no mobile coverage and net connectivity in our village that makes it impossible for us to study, ” rues Sagar Dhrangi, a Class XI student of Lok Niketan School in Virampur, four km from Dhanpura.
Mayabhai Rana, principal of a government primary school principal in Dhanpura said, “We have 16 teachers and 350 students. We are trying our best to reach out to maximum students through online classes."
My both children are studying but I don't have a mobile and there is no network coverage ,” said Bachu Gamar, a farmer in Dhanpura village.
Mukesh Chavda, in-charge district education officer (DEO), “Our teachers will be going house-to-house to solve the problems of the students and distribute home-learning material.”