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Photos: Open-air classes facilitate learning amid Covid-19 in Kashmir
Schools in Kashmir have been shut for several months due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease. With limited internet connectivity in far-flung villages of the valley, many students are unable to attend online classes like pupils in the rest of the country. With parents pleading to the local education department, open-air classes have now welcomed students back to school in the remote Doodhpathri area. Situated at an altitude of 2,730 metres (9,000 feet), an open-air school now provides face masks and sanitiser to children from 15 nearby villages before conducting lessons in classes that maintain social distancing protocols.
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Students attend a class at an open-air school on top of a mountain in Doodhpathri, Jammu and Kashmir on July 27. Schooling in Kashmir has been severely disrupted due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for several months now. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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A student attends a class at an open-air school in Doodhpathri on July 27.The opening of schools in India, now the third most infected nation in the world--with over 1.5 million infections--it is not yet clear. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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A student speaks on a loudspeaker during a class at an open-air school in Doodhpathri on July 27. Unable to afford smartphones, and with limited internet access in remote villages, many students have been unable to attend online lessons. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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Students attend a class at an open-air school in Doodhpathri on July 27.Tasleem Bashir (not pictured), 14, could hardly contain her joy at being back at school. “It feels so good to have school in this fresh air. At home, I didn’t study much because there were many house chores to do,” Bashir told AFP. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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Children climb up a hill towards their open-air school which is situated on top of a mountain in Doodhpathri, on July 28. The relief is obvious to everyone involved in the classes held at an altitude of 2,730 metres (9,000 feet). (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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A teacher dispenses hand sanitiser to a student at their open-air school in Doodhpathri on July 28. At the school, pupils from 15 villages are supplied with face masks and sanitiser before sitting in eight groups divided by age. Teachers carry whiteboards to the meadow to use during the three- to four-hour classes. “It felt wrong to receive my salary sitting at home,” teacher Manzoor Ahmad told AFP. (Tauseef Mustafa / AFP)
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