Days after shutting down all educational institutions as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, the Assam government has instructed school teachers to impart lessons via WhatsApp.
Officials of the State’s Education Departments said the step was taken after an assessment that the pandemic-dictated shutdown could lead to children dropping out of school. Learning gaps also needed to be plugged, they said.
The department on March 20 asked the teachers to provide “necessary learning support through phone-based learning material”.
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The teachers have been told to create WhatsApp groups involving parents and guardians of their students, teach and assign homework to the children and receive and check their answers. They have also been asked to share short videos on academic areas and visit the houses of the children who need special attention.
The department has asked the teachers to either extend the phone-based academic support from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. or from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
“The Education Department has felt that the closure period of schools may create learning gaps among children and there may be possibility of dropout of children from schools... As per initiatives proposed by the Department, the heads of the institutions/teachers of the schools will open a WhatsApp group with parents/guardians,” an official statement said.
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The department advised opening groups class-wise if the number of students and teachers are more in a school. “Other free technologies like Google Classroom, etc., should be explored in future and feedback of the same needs to be shared with the Education Department,” the statement said.
The State government requested the youth, who own smartphones, to provide support to those parents and guardians who have feature phones or are not acquainted with social media sites.
Assam has about 48,000 lower and upper primary schools.
