Working in the Times of Pandemic: ‘Virtual teaching has proved beneficial for students’

DUAL CHALLENGE This government school teacher finds herself more occupied with taking virtual classes and attending household chores

While the lockdown has slowed down life for many, Ravinder Kaur, a government school teacher, finds herself more occupied these days with taking virtual classes and attending household chores.

42-year old Kaur, who teaches English and Social Studies in Government Senior Secondary School, Nurpur Bet, said, “I am looking forward to reopening of schools after normalcy returns so that I no longer have to be on phone all the time.”

“Earlier, I used mobile only to take calls and, sometimes, to use the social media, but these days, I’m on phone throughout the day either checking the assignments sent by my students or clearing their queries. I hope, we collectively succeed in overcoming this situation and go back to the traditional way of teaching,” said Ravinder, who, presently, takes virtual classes for Classes 7, 8 and two batches of Class 10 (including a new batch of this session) from her school.

Likewise, she also teaches around 100 meritorious students of Class 10 in the district in a separate session from 12 to 1 pm. These are the students, who have scored more than 95% in the pre-board exams and are being prepared for admission to meritorious schools.

“Around 9 am, I give all my students the day’s assignments and check their work the very day. I inform them a day ahead if I have to take their test. All government teachers are trying their best to ensure that students keep in touch with their studies amid lockdown,” she said.

Commenting on the effectiveness of the virtual teaching, Kaur said the medium comes with lots of loopholes and challenges, it has proved to be very beneficial for the students keen on continuing their studies even amid the lockdown.

“A teacher always knows what potential every single child in a class carries. So, whenever I give students an assignment and an average performer sends back a precise answer without even a single mistake, I know it has been copied. I always call such students and tell them not to copy answers from the internet and try to attempt it on their own,” said Ravinder, sharing that virtual teaching does not provide a teacher an opportunity to form a rapport with the students and discipline that an ambience of the class provides and the process is largely mechanical.

Kaur, who is a mother of a 13-year-old son, also spends her evening in cooking different delicacies.

“I’m really fond of cooking, so I have been using my evening time in learning new dishes. Recently, I made an Arabic dessert, Umm Ali, which was liked by everyone in the family. I also tried my hand in making samosas and bundi laddoo,” shared Ravinder, who lives with her husband Mandeep Singh, mother-in–law Inderjit Kaur Bhatti and son in BRS Nagar.