DUMKA: “Teachers can change the world” and that is what Shyam Kishore Singh Gandhi, the headmaster of a school in Jharkhand’s Dumka district, has been trying to for his over 200 students, who may be bereft of smartphones but not the willingness to attend classes amid the lockdown.
Gandhi has put up several loudspeakers across the Bankathi village where his Upgraded Middle School is located, and classes are being held for two hours every day since April 16, beating the odds of online learning.
The students sit near the loudspeakers which have been put up on trees and walls at different locations and attend the classes.
“Louder speakers are put up where the number of students is more. Five teachers and two para teachers teach over the mike from the classroom, Gandhi said . Thousands of schools and colleges across India have switched to online as classrooms remain shut since mid-March amid the coronavirus outbreak. There are 246 students from class 1 to class 8, and 204 of them do not have mobile phones,” Gandhi said.
He said the classes start at 10 am daily.“If the students have any doubt or want to ask any question, they can send their queries to me from anyone’s mobile phone and we explain it the next day,” he added.
Gandhi said the model is working and students are grasping well what is being taught. The students are receptive and are enjoying the new style of studying, said an elderly villager.
Netizens praised the initiative by the kind-hearted Jharkhand principal and lauded his efforts in getting access to education amid the pandemic.