Schools under the General Education Department in Ernakulam are organising creative sessions online and simple experiments at home to help students ease the mental stress experienced in view of the pandemic situation.
Teachers have been told to have interactive sessions outside the purview of the daily academic sessions to identify the problems being faced by the students. Such sessions are held as part of the doubt clearing sessions held through digital platforms. Besides addressing the learning gaps, the teachers often take the lead in having brief interactions with the students.
“Art education is a key focus area in the learning process being held online. The teachers also encourage students to carry out simple tasks and experiments at home. These activities can be done using materials available at home,” said Honey G. Alexander, Deputy Director of Education, Ernakulam.
The 27th anniversary of renowned writer Vaikom Muhammed Basheer on Tuesday gave students an opportunity to recreate their innate talents and acting skills. Students in various schools recreated the legendary characters of Basheer on the occasion. “The performances were captured online and the best video at the district level was uploaded on YouTube,” said Ms. Honey Alexander.
The department hopes that the teachers and students would get additional time to have personal interactions when the learning process shifts to live sessions online from August onwards. At present, the classes are aired through the Victers channel and teachers conduct doubt clearing sessions through WhatsApp in the evening hours.
A section of the students has been airing concerns about the mental stress and anxiety experienced in view of the pandemic situation. They had also reported that the online learning had added on to their worries and many were finding it difficult to pursue the sessions. A good number of students continued to face technical hurdles like poor connectivity and lack of smart phones to access the class.
