As learning loss among lower primary students has been noted to be higher than those of higher classes, many private schools, which reopened on Monday, have decided to assess the learning levels and conduct bridge courses before continuing to teach the syllabus for the respective academic year.
Sreedhar S., a private company employee whose daughter is in Class IV, said, “The school management sent us a feedback form and asked us what the learning strategy should be. A majority of the parents have said that the students should be taught all the basics they learnt over the past two academic years before they progress to the syllabus of this academic year”.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “Even though we have been conducting online classes, many students have not grasped the lessons. Without ensuring they have learnt the basics, it will be meaningless to teach them lessons for higher grades,” he said.
‘Loss of learning during the pandemic’, a field study by the Azim Premji University published earlier this year, had revealed that around 92% of students from Classes II to VI have lost at least one specific foundational ability in languages, which they may have picked up in the previous years. The figure for mathematics was 82 %.
Some important recommendations of the study were eliminating vacations, extending this academic year, and reconfiguring the syllabus when offline classes resume.
Basavaraj Gurikar, vice-president, All-India Teachers’ Federation, said that unlike the case of students in higher classes or higher educational institutions, lower primary school teachers had decided to start from scratch and teach lessons which were even taught prior to the pandemic.
Students turn up at school on time, but not the teacher
“Students only logged into online classes to show up. But in small budget private schools and government schools where online classes were held, virtually no learning took place as they did not have the guidance of parents that they could rely on to grasp the lessons,” he said.
