Goa: From study sheds in cashew plantations to temples, students search for network

PANAJI: From moving residence to setting up study sheds in a cashew plantation to visiting the village temple or hitting the beach, students are forced to go to bizarre lengths in their quest for internet connectivity to access online lessons. In a state where internet — and even phone — connectivity is adept at playing hide and seek, students and teachers are left to innovate to keep their classes going.
A Class XII student from Caranzol, Vithoba Gawas, has moved to his aunt’s home in Keri. Not that the internet here is seamless. “Network connectivity is patchy here too, but better than back home,” he said. “I study in Class XII, arts stream. It is a crucial year for me and I was worried about being left behind, so I shifted to my aunt’s house.”
Back in Caranzol, the other children have set up a shed in a cashew plantation. “Every morning, 10 of them go there and download study material,” Vithoba says. Sometimes, when the network fails in Keri, he’s left to depend on his friends in areas with better network.
Meanwhile in Sanguem, teachers at a village school leave assignment sheets at a pre-decided kiosk, since most homes don’t have network coverage.
“A while ago, a teacher said that she would report to the directorate of education that we do not get network coverage in our area, but that was the last we heard about the issue,” a student said.
Up north in Bardez, students of a school not far from the taluka headquarters go to a temple to access their lessons, while their colleagues in Salcete have told their teacher that the only place there’s network is the beach, so that’s their classroom for now.
And it isn’t just students. With no broadband facilities in most schools, teachers too are facing a similar situation. While most now have broadband internet at home, and began teaching online during the lockdown, they were left in a quandary after the directorate of education asked teachers to report to work from June 24.
“I now take two classes and then rush to school to mark myself present for duty,” said a teacher from North Goa. “At times, bad network makes it difficult to upload the powerpoint files and prerecorded videos on time. I am then forced to ask my teenage daughter to do it for me, as I have to leave for school.”
Parents, meanwhile, are at their wit’s end trying to keep track of online classes. “My son is in Class V and daughter in Class III, and only my husband had a smartphone,” said Sandhya Ohal from Panaji. “Since he has to take it to work, we bought another one just for our children to access classes. But the timings of classes clash, and we can’t invest in yet another one.”
Ohal also said that one parent usually has to sit idle the entire morning session, as the kids are often too young to access classes on their own. Each class, she said, is accessible only on login with a registered email id.
Teachers said that while students appeared enthusiastic about online classes at first, they are now finding it difficult to keep students engaged.
“We have 40-50 students in each class, and it is difficult to keep track of so many students at a time over Google Meet,” said a teacher. “Some students just join the class for the sake of attendance, and then log off. To remedy this, I started taking their attendance at the start and again at the end of the class.”
A teacher from Bardez told TOI that parents from poorer sections were left weeping as they couldn’t afford to keep buying Android smartphones. “The parents were worried, asking me whether their children would be thrown out of school since they couldn’t afford to give them smartphones,” she said.
“I reassured them that no such thing would happen, and offered to coach the students if they were willing to come to school or to my residence. Parents with two or three children are worst-hit, as most classes are held around the same time.”
Another teacher from Vasco said that children who live in large families are finding it difficult to get the privacy and quiet needed to concentrate on classes.
“Children belonging to families of migrants are hardly able to attend online classes, as they have just one phone in the house and the parents go out to work early in the morning and return in the evening,” said a teacher from Calangute.
One senior citizen, seeing the plight of students in his neighbourhood, has asked the teacher of a group of children to call on his mobile number for the class. The children now attend classes at the man’s house, where his phone is connected to his Smart TV.