Peers, teachers reach out to poor students

Hyderabad: Students who do not have access to either television or the internet will not miss out on online classes from September 1 in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. The administration has made arrangemnts for alternative teaching with the help of peers or teachers themselves reaching out to the disadvantaged pupils.
Yadadri Bhuvanagiri collector Anitha Ramachandran told TOI that there were 38,000 students in the district. Of them, 1,527 had no access to either television or a mobile phone with internet connectivity. “We have done a survey and found it was a small number. Since these students have been identified, we have made special arrangements to see they will be on the same page in so far as lessons that have been taught online are concerned,” she said.
In other parts of the state, authorities have asked gram panchayats to arrange a television set so that students could attend classes if they have no TV or internet. No such instructions were issued in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri.
“We want to avoid gathering of students in the current Covid situation. It is for this reason that we have online classes,” the collector said.
Hajipur village in Bommalaramaram, for instance, has a few students who have no access to television or internet. The gram panchayat authorities told TOI that they had got no instructions to arrange a TV for the students. “But we have been asked to tell parents to see that the children attend the classes online and we will be doing that,” a village functionary said.
Finance minister T Harish Rao, who held a tele-conference with Medak district officials, advised government schools to have a teacher take responsibility for every 10 children so that they do not miss out on the classes.