Lessons over WhatsApp for government school students but challenges remain

Gurugram: For over a week now, Piyush Rajput, a class 10 student of a government school in Gurugram’s Civil Lines, has been spending several hours a day working

Gurugram: For over a week now, Piyush Rajput, a class 10 student of a government school in Gurugram’s Civil Lines, has been spending several hours a day working on assignments or readings that he receives via a class Whatsapp group formed recently. With schools across the city closing their doors in the wake of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, teachers are now sending study material and assignments via Whatsapp to ensure that the learning process is not interrupted.

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“When the new session was postponed due to the lockdown, our teachers asked us to add our classmates to a Whatsapp group, where teachers could share learning resources with us. Our class strength is 44 and we were able to reach out to at least 30 students who were added to the group. Teachers have been sharing videos, tutorials, and PDF files of books with us through this group. We are even asked to send pictures of the homework we do and demonstrate whether we are keeping up with the lessons,” says Piyush. He added that while most teachers share notes and resources, some others share their recorded lectures.

“Teachers who can’t record videos themselves are sharing videos already available in the public domain. We share our doubts regarding the lessons and assignments between 3-4pm,” said Piyush, who also attended a webinar for his computer class this week via video conferencing platform Zoom.

Not everyone is as lucky as Piyush, though, as some of his classmates are unable to receive these resources and thereby stay in tune with the rest of the class since they don’t possess a smartphone or are unable to get it recharged. “Many students come from impoverished backgrounds and can’t afford to have a smartphone. As of now, students who are able to access their parents’ mobile phones are able to benefit from these classes. Most students are studying via mobile phones and only a few students would have access to laptops,” says Piyush.

Suman Sharma, principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 4/7, said classes are taking place remotely via Whatsapp for students who recently got promoted from class 9 to 10, and 11 to 12. She added that classes for all students would start soon as per the class schedule shared by the Department of Education on Wednesday. “Teachers create a summary of the lesson in simple language, click a picture of the same, and share it on the class’ group on Whatsapp. Students are then asked to answer questions based on the shared summary and the teacher responds with feedback over chat,” says Sharma.

The experience is new not just for students but for teachers too, who are adapting themselves to the situation and learning the ropes of technology as they go. Manjubala, an English teacher at the Government Model Senior Secondary School in Sector 4/7, has recorded and uploaded two lectures on YouTube until now. Sharing her experience with technology, she says, “I had been reading about private schools starting online classes and was wondering if something similar could be done for our students to ensure that they don’t lag behind. I started putting together a video and shared it for my students on April 1. Simultaneously, the state government too came up with guidelines asking us to share class resources via available modes.”

Recording and uploading the lectures was no easy task, says Manjubala, who goes by her first name. “There was no professional setup or resources. I used my mobile phone to record a video and learnt to upload the video via the web. After an initial struggle, I managed to record, upload and share some videos,” she said.

While the videos were not as comprehensive as a real-life lecture, she says it was the least that could be done. “Our students aren’t very polished in the English language. Recorded lectures based on their competencies can serve a better purpose in sharing the lessons. Covering the whole lecture in a video, like it’s done in school, is not possible, but I try to share whatever little can be done, even if the videos are short. Questions are later discussed on WhatsApp groups,” said Manjubala, whose phone crashed under the weight of the videos and has been in disrepair ever since.

“I am not well versed with mobile technology and while uploading one of the videos, my phone stopped working. I can’t get it repaired because of the lockdown,” she said. Out of a total strength of 60, 50 students are able to attend her class, she adds.

Vidushi Kataria, a computer teacher at the Government Boys’ Senior Secondary School, saw her son attend classes via Zoom and taking cue from the same, she started taking computer classes for students of class 12 via Zoom. “I had seen my son attending classes via Zoom and thought of trying it out with my students. There are seven-eight students who attend class regularly and two-three others are able to make it if they are able to access mobile phone data. For a subject like programming, we need to share the screen and simply reading out notes doesn’t help,” said Kataria.

She, however, adds that using a platform such as Zoom was challenging since not all children had access to smart devices. “Children in government schools come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Most students don’t have access to laptops, and everyone might not have a smartphone either. We try to share whatever resources we can via Whatsapp,” said Kataria.

District education officer Indu Boken said that a timetable had been created wherein classes of all subjects were scheduled. “Classes will be taken from 9:30am to 12:30pm every day. Teachers are also taking tests of the students in the evening. We have already shared videos for all subjects for all classes with teachers,” said Boken.

She added that even some of those children, who had moved out during the exodus following the lockdown imposition, have also been connected to the groups now. “As of now, we don’t have practical solutions for students without a smartphone. The Internet is required for sharing resources and managing classes without that would be difficult,” she said.