In a bid to continue classes for the government schools’ students in Jharkhand’s Dumarthar village in Jarmundi Dumka district, the principal and teaching staff of Dumarthar upgraded government middle school came up with an innovative idea to take the school to the doorsteps of students in a tribal-dominated area.

In the village where online classes and virtual classrooms are a distant cry, school principal and teachers turned mud walls to blackboards to teach the students.

When the lockdown was announced in the nation, the principal of the school Dr. Sapan Patralekh along with four other para teachers’ thought that if the students who hail from the tribal community are not kept connected to education and classes, they will forget whatever they have learned so far. Also, they will lose interest in studies. There were challenges in holding virtual classes for these students. The brainstorming sessions held among the principal and school staff opened up a new vista to keep the spirit of learning intact. They came up with an inspirational idea to go to the village and turn the mud walls into blackboards. The school had 289 students enrolled in it.

The teachers identified two points each in two nearby villages and used the wall of mud baked houses as a blackboard. The students had their own dusters, and 50 students each were made to sit in the vicinity of the blackboard at two different points.

A similar arrangement was made at two points in a nearby village. Two teachers each were deployed in two villages.

The teachers carried a loudspeaker and a blackboard. The students wrote their doubts on the blackboard, and teachers addressed it on their board. The teachers and students followed social distance norms.

Source: India Today

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