The frequent closure of educational institutions for one reason or the other is a matter of great concern for all of us. Theschool academic calendar has been shrinking mainly in this part the world (Kashmir) due to many reasons be itfloods, extension of winter break due to sever cold, political unrest and now,the closure of schools because of thisprevailing situation that emerged due to COVID-19. Keeping in view the importance of education,there is need to develop alternative arrangement so that education doesn’tsuffer. More importantly the school education that needs more attention andcare because it provides the base to over all education process. During this extraordinary situations,introduction of tele-classes will be thebest alternative to carry forward the teaching learning process. It willcompensate the academic loss to some extent. The recent announcement of suchinitiative by Director School education has been well received by the generalpeople.
But the basic questions is that how these classes beexecuted on the ground? The best andeasiest way is to launch such classes by adopting the most popular mode of communication that is available to usis internet but unfortunately this option is impossible because of low speed.The second easiest and readily availableoption before us right now is DD-Channels or other local TV channels. But in order to avail maximum benefit of suchclasses and make this endeavor more fruitful, we must adopt a systematic approach and also we should give dueconsideration towards following suggestions:
Common Text Books : The state should ensurethat only the prescribed text booksframed by the government recognizedboards like NCERT, CBSE should be adopted in public, private or Governmentschools for all class right from the class 1st. This not only brings uniformity to education system that has beenpresently fragmented into sections but also it will be easy for concerneddepartment or agency to arrange tele-classesfor every class. Otherwise how can a teacher who is supposed to deliver thetopic fulfill the needs of students if they are adopt different text books.
Keep the content recorded : The departmentof education can do one more thing in this regard, they can keep the content ofthe texts pre- recorded and keep it available all the time so that if any untoward situation occurs anytime, they can tele-class through videoor TV channels without any delay. For this purpose, school education departmentcan utilize the services it’s parentinstitutions like SIE, DIET.
Inclusion of all classes: Normally when wetalk about of tele-classes, our focus only remains from the class 8th on wardsbut what about the primary classes which also needs equal attention. So when weformulate plane for tele- classes, the concerned department should give dueattention towards primary classes too.
Need more research and investment : Informationtechnology influenced every sector. It has been seen globally that developedcountries do the frequent use of Information Technology in teaching learningprocess. Under developed or developing countries can’t keep themselves at bayabout such developments so there is need to do more research and investment inthis important field so that properinfrastructure must be placed.
To conclude, I must say that tele-classescan be an alternative option not the best one when comparing it with the normalteaching learning process where both the teacher and student remain activelyengaged and a student can clarify queries or doubts. But this time we areconfronting with very tough situations, therefore it isthe need of the hour to adopt it as the timely option.
Haroon Rashid Bhat Is a teacher- ZoneGanderbal