Addition to teachers’ woe, multiple classes on same lessons, online and offline
Kathmandu .
Grappling with the new reality of online classes, along with the usual classes in school, the divide between work hours and personal time has blurred for most of the teachers. Ritu, a government school teacher in Chandigarh, conducts classes at the school for students till 2.30 pm and then, begin the online classes on the same topics from 3:30 pm.
As per government directives, with the permission of their guardians, students may attend school. However, the online mode of conducting classes will be preferred, putting the onus on the teachers to hold both the modes of classes. While the online classes are concluded till 6.30 pm, the teachers’ phones remain buzzing with the students’ queries on WhatsApp and phone calls until much later.
Many students have access to online classes only through their parents’ mobile phones, the availability of which is usually uncertain. On days when such students get access to a mobile phone quite late, they reach out to ask queries about the lessons and the next day’s classes. “Students reach out to me with their queries till 9 pm. Sometimes, I even get calls and messages of students at 11 pm.” Teaching one lesson at least twice or thrice, in a bid to reach out to all their students — who are also faced with myriad inconveniences, several of UT government school teachers admit that they have been going through a tough time.
