Teachers’ class act: Garden sessions to spl drop boxes
Unable to conduct prelims, schools opt for question paper app, drop boxes for solved papers to help students
MUMBAI: Before the pandemic hit the city, schools and junior colleges would be busy conducting practice exams, prelims and guidance sessions for Class 10 and Class 12 students around this time of the year, ahead of the state board exams that would take place in February-march. This year however, as schools in the city are closed from the past 10 months owing to Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown, they cannot hold the mock tests and guidance sessions within their premises.
This situation left students and parents anxious and schools in a fix. The institutes did not know how to navigate the situation in the beginning. Gradually, many of them found a way around. From introducing a drop box to teaching students in gardens and at their homes, schools and colleges are doing it all to ensure that the board exams, scheduled for April-may this year, go smoothly for the students.
At VPM’S Vidya Mandir High School, Dahisar, parents can drop-in solved prelim papers into the drop boxes on designated days. The teachers then check the papers and drop them back, from where the parents can pick up the sheets.
“Every year, we conduct practice tests and prelims after the syllabus is over. This year, however, it was not possible to do so due to the lockdown. Hence, we came up with the idea of a drop box. We send papers to students as per the timetable on the Google Classroom created for them and they have to solve the questions within the time given. Parents can then drop the papers in sealed envelopes on the given dates,” said Kshama Valanjoo, assistant headmistress of the school.
A Borivli school and junior college received several requests from parents for conducting practice exams at the institute. But with the local authorities not allowing institutes to reopen, the school was unable to call students despite parents’ consent.
“We have now made groups of 10 students and have asked them to come to a nearby garden where we gave them the papers. They then solve the paper there and our teachers guide them in person,” said a teacher from the school.
KVK School in Ghatkopar used a question paper generator app to digitally create and send papers to students.
“Students can submit solved papers in the school and those who are not in the city can post three papers together. We will conduct prelims in the same fashion. A lot of our students cannot afford tuitions, hence we have to help them in all ways possible,” said school principal Jagdish Indalkar.
Teachers are also providing guidance lectures and special coaching to weak students. “We have made groups of students and have assigned a teacher to help students solve their queries and guide them from time to time,” said Valanjoo.
Prominent junior colleges said that they were still using the online medium for tests on which a large number of students are enrolled.
Satram Verhani, vice-principal of CHM College at Ulhasnagar, said that as colleges have a large number of students, it is a challenge to collect physical answer sheets.
“We have around 2,200 students and hence we conducted only periodic tests [online] so far. If physical schools and colleges are allowed to partially reopen in the coming days, we will consider some offline options too,” he added.