Teachers rise to the occasion, as always

Eating a quick breakfast with the right hand while the left hand expertly starts an online Zoom class has become the new norm,” writes Kanchana, who teaches high school Math. Like professionals in many other fields, teachers too are coming to terms with the way work styles have morphed due to the pandemic. What seemed like a longer than usual summer break gave way to consternation as the possible dates for schools reopening kept moving more and more into the future. Concerned teachers and school heads started thinking about ways to start interacting with children on-line and exploring the various possibilities of doing so.

Teachers were already familiar with the not so positive effects of children spending too much time in front of TV screens or with cell phones. There was resistance from parents too, who were concerned with children spending too much time staring at screens. The advice from governments was confusing and contradictory. Parents with work from home (WFH) schedules had varied opinions about the form that their children’s education should take. A few parents decided to try homeschooling instead of trusting schools with online education. The government came up with directives, restricting online classes according to the age of children.

Everywhere in the country teachers are rising to the occasion, mastering tools and technology and forming support groups to help each other.

Kanchana, for example, set up on-line tutorials for her colleagues to help them navigate various online tools. Other teachers have curated and shared useful
websites and learning programmes that they have found helpful. Parents and students have become collaborators with teachers as technology tips and innovative ideas are freely exchanged with a view to improve education.

Such collaboration itself is a sign that the more traditional notion of expertise residing solely with the teacher is giving way to a more distributed notion of expertise with many people being able to come together to solve a common problem. Perhaps, in this unexpected way - as parents witness first-hand the work done by teachers - the respect for the profession will be enhanced.

The NEP 2020 does say that, “..high respect for teachers and high status for teaching profession must be restored…” Parents hard-pressed for time as they juggle house-work with the professional demands of work from home, would certainly be appreciative of the teachers, who keep their children engaged in
meaningful ways.

Vidhya Harish, as head of a CBSE school, has been actively involving her teachers in a series of workshops so that they can facilitate online and activity based learning. All this has meant a great deal of extra work for her teachers, but there are no complaints, she says.

Classes are divided into smaller groups, where children can discuss their doubts with the teacher in separate sessions. Another teacher, Induja who works with 8 year olds, says, “Unlike 8 to 3 school timings, as teachers we need to spend more time preparing and designing the curriculum and coordinating with other teachers as the whole process is new to everyone.”

Teachers need to become innovative as they face-time with children in order to facilitate activities and exercises that children can do independently at their own time. Induja says, “Teaching online opens up lots of avenues to learn new and innovative ways to teach.”

However, there are challenges too. Induja misses the close attention she could give each child in the classroom and feels that paying one-on-one attention is challenging while teaching online.

“There is a growing sense of unease that some students are starting to switch off. This includes children who need a teacher’s physical presence and bond to feel that they can do it, children who are not able to self-direct or self-motivate and children who need extra time to catch up and feel that the adaptations required in this online mode are just too numerous. With extra classes, one-on-one sessions, additional worksheets, online learning aids, fatigue is starting to set in,” Kanchana says.

While these and many teachers all over the world are responding to the changing nature of teaching and classrooms, there are other dedicated teachers who are bravely reaching out to children across the digital divide by visiting their homes and communities - reading stories, playing math games and handing out worksheets. Truly, “Teachers are the heart of the learning process” as the NEP says.

(The author is an educationist)