Schools across the State are sprucing up to welcome children back to campus after a long gap caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
At Government Model Lower Primary School, Thycaud, here, four classrooms are being converted into smart classrooms, all using teachers’ contributions.
The smart classrooms are being set up for students of Class I and II. The school had received Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, funding for upgrade of its pre-primary section to excellence. However, pre-primary students are not returning to school yet. It is students in Classes I to IV who will resume schooling on Monday. But with less than a week left for reopening, the teachers thought why not make an effort to welcome students of Classes I and II to classrooms that look nearly as colourful and attractive as the pre-primary section.
The teachers also went the extra mile since those students have not had any experience of primary schooling, and they wanted the children to explore all the possibilities that offline classes provided. Since funding was an issue at short notice, the staff members pitched in.
The classrooms, on the first floor of the building, are for two divisions each of Class I and Class II.
Furniture in the classrooms has been made more child-friendly. Owing to the COVID-19 protocols, benches that usually seat four students have been split into half to allow seating with adequate distancing. Their height too has been reduced to suit the younger children. They are colourful too, in rainbow colours instead of drab monotones.
The walls of the classrooms have been painted to resemble themes from their textbooks. The Class I wall depicts the cover of their Malayalam textbook that is from the first chapter Tarayude Veedu and is immensely relatable to children. There are trees, skies and birds, cows, goats, and hens, coconut palms, huts, wells, and hills. Even other subjects such as Mathematics can be learnt by taking a look at the classroom wall.
Work on the other three classrooms is nearing completion. They too have similar thematic walls and colourful furniture. The classrooms also have projectors, digital board, white board, and so on.
Contribution
The teachers together contributed ₹1.3 lakh for work on the classrooms. School authorities say they had 200 students last year, but this year the number has increased to 300. There are plans to launch a challenge to transform the classrooms for students of Classes 3 and 4 too.
