Ideally,
today would have been Arsh Khan’s second day in Class IX.
The
13-year-old student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bambolim, would not have just been studying,
he would have also been preparing for the school’s annual day and sports
tournaments, normally scheduled in April.
But
COVID-19 has turned the datelines of the academic year into the most difficult
multiplechoice question ever. And no one has the right answer, yet.
“We’ve
started internet classes and are encouraging our students to study online. Our
priority is those students giving the Class X and Class XII Board exams,” says
Tanuja Dessai, principal, The King’s School, Mugalli.
Roshan
Kamat, a senior teacher at Loyola High School,Margao, says, “Students are very much
confused, very stressed because they are looking at a scenario that is so unclear.
Especially, Class X students; I know a few who have lost interest in studying
because they don’t know when they will have to give the exam. Rumours are going
around that it may be mid-May. So they’re thinking why study now then?”
No
matter the speculated month of the exam, it brings with it the cascading effect
of paper corrections, result announcements, and college
admissions,
all of which mean the traditional new academic year in June could well be
looking at a delayed date.
“My relative who’s in Dubai,says schools there
are starting in July, while some schools there have asked their students to
report directly in October,” says a worried mother-of-two from Taleigao.
“We’ve not got any circulars on when we’ll be
re-opening. As of now, we’re uploading notes on the institute website on
portion, assignments, questionnaires, guiding projects, etc,” says the head of
department at a South Goa-based college.
A teacher worries that a delayed start will
mean teachers and students will be racing against the academic clock to finish
in time for the next academic year.
“The challenge will be in getting students
interested in studies again. The first few months will go in just revising
previous knowledge. While brighter students will cope, weaker ones will
struggle,” she feels.
Sufola Silva Araujo, HoD (IT),at Padre
Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna, says, “We should as far as possible
avoid delays in term-ending next year hence we would require ways to cover up
for time lost. Some suggestions: usage of technology will need to be more
widespread.
Video uploads,online classrooms, virtual/elearning will play a vital role. But the
separation of students from teachers and counsellors will be a big negative in
the all-round growth of students. So parents and guardians will have to play an
even bigger role in ensuring
their
children maintain learning discipline.”
Other means of making up for lost time could
be curtailing vacations, putting in extra hours of work, etc, she says.
A tuition teacher says anxious parents have
been asking her to send online activity for their children so they don’t forget
how to study. “While I’ve already been sending my students of Class X and Class
XII worksheets to solve, I’ve now started preparing the same for my students in
junior
classes
as well.”
A mother of two who is also a teacher says
she doesn’t want to pressurise her children with just studies so she’s got them
practicing their reading and oration skills among other productive tasks. “Otherwise
I don’t know which of my walls will fall first from my son banging his
ball
on it,” she satirizes.
Fr. Basil Vago, principal of Loyola High
School, Margao, sums up academia’s present ambiguous reality.
On the negative side, he says,it has left a
number of students,especially those who have toiled hard through the year, a
little disappointed. It has developed a complete sense of uncertainty, especially
among students appearing for Board exams and those wishing to take up
professional
career exams.
While the academic/education system is out of
gear, when the academic year does begin, educators will have to spend initially
months dealing
with
children being more susegad about studies and exams, he feels. Their lack of
physical activity at home could also affect mental health and maybe
unsupervised internet usage could have longterm addictions and dangerous fallouts,
he adds. “Institutions will have to be more understanding about spending
adequate time in the initial days to revise and help students to cope,” says
Fr. Vago.
On
the positive side, he says, the lockdown has led to e-learning, a realization
that written-format exams are not the
only way to evaluate a
student’s
learning,while the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) tool could do away someday
with rote learning.
He
says parents have come to understand their equal involvement in their child’s learning
process, while educators have had to reflect on their role, with an opportunity
to enhance skills. It has created awareness about hygiene and the need to
conserve the environment made us
sensitive
to the needs of others, through community living and interdependence, and
checked our consumerist and materialistic
tendency
by teaching us to be more rational in our use of things and to be content with
what we have says Fr. Vago. “It has truly helped us to
experience
and appreciate the sense of divine intervention in our lives and it has helped
us human beings realize our limitations and how we should cope with our helplessness,”
he says, signing off.
