Maharashtra: Online classes without break taking toll on teachers

The worst-hit have been first-year undergraduate students of professional courses with delayed start to the academic year. The bigger challenge has been for teachers who have already been busy conducting lectures and examinations for other UG batches, and have now started from scratch with the first-year batches.

A typical day in the D’Sa household starts at 6am when Belinda D’Sa, 42, a college professor starts her day with preparing breakfast for her family of three, before waking up her daughter for her classes. By 7.30am, D’Sa is ready to start back-to-back lectures for undergraduate students of a Vasai college where she teaches Bachelor of Arts students.

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“Before the pandemic, I would wake up at 6am and be off to college by 7am; our maid would cook and ready my daughter for school. Now I end up doing all the work and conduct classes at the same time. My lectures go on till around 11.30am, following which I focus on household chores. The list of things-to-do is never ending,” said D’Sa.

Her routine resonates with several teachers who have spent a large part of last year understanding technology from scratch in order to be able to teach virtually and ensure that lectures are kept interactive enough so students do not lose focus during class.

“After lunch, I take a small break before I start helping my daughter with her studies as well as prepare PowerPoint presentations (PPTs) for my next day’s lectures. I teach seven different batches of students and end up preparing at least four to five PPTs every day,” she added.

Meenal Bhole, a teacher from Vidya Bhawan High School and Junior College in Ghatkopar, said that soon after schools moved online, teachers started experimenting with various online learning tools. “We learnt how to make videos and edit them, made study material and used various tools to make our teaching interesting. With time, we realised what needs to be improved. For instance, we first made 30 to 40-minute explanatory videos. Slowly, as we realised that students have a very short attention span even to see these videos, we made small clips of 10-15 minutes,” she added.

Most schools require teachers to teach for two-three hours every day. However, in actuality, teachers end up working almost throughout the day. “I have a class from 8 to 10 in the morning but after that I quickly finish my chores and take an extra class for students to solve their doubts between 2pm and 4pm. Evenings are spent in making content for the following day — PDFs, PPTs and videos. We also have assessments to do and projects to check,” said a teacher from an ICSE school in the city.

The pandemic forced education institutes to think on their feet and immediately embrace technology, and while online classes threw challenges in front of teachers and students alike, the worst hit were students on the margins who needed extra attention, especially in the virtual mode. In some cases, teachers now had to take over the role of a counsellor as well.

“I have set aside an hour every evening and informed students and parents that they can call me during that time to discuss their issues or anxieties. Many parents had tested positive in the past few months and were worried that their children would lose out on studies as they had their mobile phones in hospitals. We gave them assurance and spoke to the children to ease their pressure,” added Bhole.

Besides teaching, the real challenge for teachers was to keep students engaged in the online mode. “Every day we struggle to make teaching interesting and try to innovate so that students stay on their screens and listen to the classes. Especially with the younger kids, it’s a challenge to keep them away from distractions. There have been instances where children have put their screens off, removed someone from the class or played pranks. We need to be patient yet vigilant to address these issues,” said Ruiee Kapoor, a teacher from St Elias School, Khar.

The worst-hit have been first-year undergraduate students of professional courses with delayed start to the academic year, many of whom started their first lectures as late as in March and April this year. The bigger challenge has been for teachers who have already been busy conducting lectures and examinations for other UG batches, and have now started from scratch with the first-year batches.

“Usually all classes and exams would be over by May end and teachers would get at least two-three weeks of break before starting the next academic year. This year, while the second, third and fourth-year students finish their classes, teachers are busy with the first-year batch which will continue till July-August 2021 at least,” said Gopakumaran Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College in Bandra.

He added that while teachers have the advantage of conducting classes from home, many are reaching the point of exhaustion. “If this continues, and teachers don’t get a break, they will reach a breaking point and we will have to think of ways to ensure they get ample rest before the start of the next academic year,” added Thampi.

Over the past one year, teachers have been working relentlessly, working on holidays, keeping their personal priorities aside. This year, as summer breaks are just a few days away, the state education department is yet to announce vacations for teachers. “We have not taken a break for an entire year and wish to get just a few days off. We hope the government takes a call on this soon and announces vacations,” said Rajesh Pandya, vice-president of Teachers’ Democratic Front.