As Odisha battles the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the prime concerns of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is protecting the health of children and ensuring their uninterrupted education. With classroom teaching getting disrupted due to the fear of a rise in corona cases, Patnaik instructed the mass education department to make arrangements for online teaching of students. But this has only been a partial success as mobile connectivity remains a major problem for students in remote areas such as Malkangiri. A large number of them are unable to connect to online classes. Besides, the poor ones cannot afford smartphones which are a must to take advantage of online teaching.
But, instead of giving up, Patnaik asked the mass education mandarins to come up with new ideas to help students who cannot join online classes or take advantage of virtual classes on YouTube. After a lot of brainstorming, they have come up with a new scheme under which budding teachers, especially those under training, will be engaged to provide door-step teaching to students unable to take advantage of online classes in remote areas with no internet or mobile connectivity. These aspiring teachers will move from house to house in such areas and teach students as part of their internship programme. One such teacher will be engaged in teaching a maximum of 10 students in a village.
Volunteerism in the education sector is also being encouraged. Some of the stories in this sector are heart-warming. For example, a community radio station is helping bring school lessons to the poor tribal students of tribal-dominated Koraput who do not have internet access or smartphones. This a noteworthy attempt to close the digital divide in imparting education amid the corona pandemic.
Although the Odisha State School Education Programme Authority has started streaming live classes on YouTube for the benefit of students, hundreds of students in districts such as Koraput, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh and Keonjhar are unable to take advantage of it due to lack of internet connectivity. For such students, the Dhimsa Community Radio Centre set up by a voluntary organization, has come as a boon. Managed by a Koraput-based non-profit it broadcasts educational content to over 2,000 students of classes I to V in 62 villages of six panchayats in Koraput and Lamtaput blocks of the tribal-dominated district. The biggest beneficiaries of the programme are the children belonging to the Paraja tribal group.
Sources said that the organization has developed education programs on Mathematics and English for primary levels and covers one lesson in a day. The radio streams educational content for nine hours every day: one hour of live programme and two hours of pre-recorded sessions, repeated in the afternoon and evening.
A similar voluntary effort is being made by a schoolteacher in Ganjam district. He has been trying to take live YouTube classes to the homes of children lacking internet facilities with the help of local cable TV operators. Thanks to the efforts of the five-time Chief Minister and such volunteers, education is now reaching even the poorest of the poor in these troubled times.
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