As India has been frequently under lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic during the past year and a half, besides economy, worst affected sector is education. Offline connectivity, which is vital for healthy and fruitful interactions, remained cut off and both teachers and students away from the classroom. The only mode of education available thus was online classes which depends heavily on internet speed in a particular area.
While online connectivity is a problem in rural landscape of the country, it’s a nightmare in strife-raven state of Jammu and Kashmir. Situation was worse in the state which was under a digital curfew for 18 months after it had been split into two on August 5, 2019.
Though 4G services were restored in J&K on February 6 this year, connectivity still remained a distant dream in far-flung, especially high-altitude areas of the state. Yet there were some islands of hope like Kulgam district which took lead in introducing new and avant-garde initiatives to improve the educational scenario in the district.
To counter the issues which people were facing during the onset of the pandemic, the district administration of Kulgam started high-altitude community classes. The decision is now being appreciated by all sections of the society.
THE INITIATIVE
With the two waves of Covid-19 lashed the country during past year and a half, the education system of the district was completely crippled. The UT government took proactive steps in delivering classes through voice and video calls but that didn’t solve the problem. Although a considerable section of students benefitted through this process, yet a large section of students particularly those from rural areas and comparatively downtrodden sections of the society remained completely detached from it.
While speaking with Indian Masterminds, Deputy Commissioner Dr. Bilal Mohiuddin Bhat said “It is this quest for reaching out to all the students and ensuring that no student remains detached from education that gave rise to the idea of community classes. It began with some teachers voluntarily going to the high-altitude areas that had no access to cellular network, taking students in open areas and teaching them there with appropriate Covid-19 SOPs in place.”
As this idea gained currency and yielded positive results, teachers started community classes particularly in areas that had no access to cellular network and where students did not have smartphones. However, till the time this initiative would have gained momentum, the second wave of Covid 19 hit the country again forcing schools to close down once again.
RE-STARTING THE INITIATIVE
Several initiatives taken by the administration including Learning Management System (LMS), a software specially developed by the Director School Education Kashmir, could not succeed in the state because of the digital divide.
Dr. Bilal said, “To address this issue and to reach out to all the students the district administration and department of education again came up with the idea of starting community classes and the decision is being appreciated by all sections of the society. The basic idea behind this initiative was to minimize the academic losses.”
Chief Education Officer M. A. Rather said, “About 40 percent students have been covered through community classes in Kulgam so far and this initiative is proving to be very helpful for students as they are able to come into direct contact with their teachers in these classes.”
OTHER INITIATIVES
Along with the community classes initiative, several other activities were carried out during this pandemic in Kulgam, like online training/capacity building of teachers, sensitization of head of institutions/teachers regarding online teaching, online deployment of teachers, availability of printed assignments for students at their doorsteps, distribution of free mid-day meal rice among the students, scholarships for underprivileged and SC/ST population, survey and online enrollment of CWSN, etc. Such steps to resolve the academic crisis in a state riven by difficult terrain and inclement weather, go on to prove the old adage that necessity is the mother of all inventions. But, an added factor in Kulgam’s educational initiative is: innovation is the key to success.
