As we entered the month of March 2020, Holi the festival of colours was celebrated with much joy and fervour by all students and with the syllabus being successfully completed; revision for II Semester exams were in full swing when we received the news of Covid -19 outbreak in Maharashtra and rest of the country. The Government as a precautionary measure decided to close the schools for students by ending our plans abruptly.
March-April is the exam season across India and shutting down during these crucial months can highly impact academic growth of the students. Parents were confused about how the revisions will go on and about the final exams. We assured them that we shall look for an alternative to keep the students occupied at home and learn simultaneously. I have told parents to take this as a positive sign and spend time with their children and help them in academics apart from other activities.
As the saying goes “Technology cannot replace teachers, but tech in hands of great teachers can be transformational.” We planned to send the revision and homework’s in the form of videos and pictures through WhatsApp. Our plan was successfully implemented by the teachers and this initiative was appreciated by all parents.
Our school has Pre-Primary section and Primary Section up to Std III for the Academic Session 2019-20. According to the Government directives final exams were cancelled but still our teachers are continuing to send daily fun activities including creative art and fun organised games and also activities related to academics so that children are in touch with the subjects and also to make them occupied in the social isolation period.
This also helps kids who are impatient & playful and need their daily dose of playing outdoors which is prohibited at the moment. I suggested the teachers to send the video messages to interact with the children to establish virtual bonding. The teachers learnt to design the activities and prepared videos to send to children. They were open to the suggestions and begun researching to find out different activities. Teachers are taking this situation in a positive manner.
Parents are also happily sharing the pictures and activities of the quality time spent with their children with us. We are posting the same on WhatsApp and Facebook page of our school to encourage parents and children to actively participate in this time of crisis.
This situation is not permanent but as an Educationist I say “Positivity Always Wins” and we educators together with students and parents hope that we shall overcome this crisis by abiding by the rules set by the Government and taking care of self and others.
HAPPY SOCIAL DISTANCING!!!
(Jyothsana Gururaj.S, Principal,, R.B. Karia Preschool & Shri Ratilal Bhagwandas Karia English School)
