Amidst Covid-19 outbreak globally, the schools all over the nation and world, hold a great responsibility on their shoulders. In fact, I would say that, they are supposed to prove their existence in this period of adversity to extract opportunity through the best of their abilities and resources .
Mount Abu School had commenced online classes for the students’ right from the day, the decision about lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are dealing with all aspects of the crisis, and assisting our students, staff and parents to overcome this battle. The school began with remote learning on 13th March 2020 for Grades 10 and 12 and on 1st April 2020 for rest of the grades. Meanwhile, our online activities and challenges were designed to keep students, staff and parents engaged in these highly anxious times. We found this time as a golden opportunity to polish technical know-how of our staff members and thus regular sessions on conducting remote learning were organised through MS Teams and Zoom.
The school conducted webinars for parents and students to raise Covid-19 awareness and to run crash courses on use of technology. Mount Abu Career & Guidance Cell conducted online webinars and one-to-one video calls for our students to deal with anxieties related to current crisis and related to stream selections. The school also celebrated World Health Day and Schools’ 22nd Foundation Day through digital platforms where all stakeholders of the school came together for a joyful merriment.
Our social media handles are conducting intensive awareness campaigns to ensure that our learning community is protected, safe and healthy. The school even conducted online PTMs, Online Orientation for new parents and home delivery of the new learning materials to ensure social distancing. Therefore, online solutions at Mount Abu are not restricted to remote learning or just one aspect of the crisis. Our response to the pandemic has been rather very pro-active.
I understand that sometimes students at home, feel disinterested as they don’t get that ambience to work as they get in class, so time to time motivational sessions are organized for them so that they don’t lose interest and keep themselves connected with the teachers at school as the most important thing is to give them individual attention which always act as a catalyst for their enhanced interest in the subject.
Moreover, the lectures delivered by the teachers include interactive worksheets which make the learners get more interested to perform as it is well known that experiential learning always lets the learners grasp the content easily. Online classes ,through the self-paced learning helps the learners to uncover their strengths and weaknesses, so it is important for online students to exercise strong time management skills so as to attend all the classes. Here regular conversation is the tools that keep the learners engaged in the task.
Regular feedback from the parents and students are taken regularly which is an excellent mechanism for maintaining the connection strong as it requires intense requirement for self-discipline and self direction.
Schools all across India are not only continuing regular education, but also effectively dealing with anxieties by keeping them engaged and building resilience and patience by showing that any enormous challenge can be dealt with a systematic action plan.
Jyoti Arora is Principal at Mount Abu Public School, Delhi and also an elected Governing Body Member of Central Board of Secondary Education. She has been awarded CBSE National Teachers Award for her relentless efforts in the field of school education. As an expert on education and related industries, she has authored many newspaper articles and participated in various panel discussions across the country and abroad. She is also heading Indraprastha Schools Sahodaya as President and Delhi Schools Sahodaya Complex as Vice President, which are clusters of more than 120 CBSE affiliated schools in Delhi NCR.
