In 2020 Highland Post spoke to a number of teachers in the State to hear stories on how they cope with the new teaching environment when Covid-19 swept the world. One year later on this same day celebrating Teacher’s Day these frontliners of education are still striving to smoothen student’s future despite an unprecedented school year.
By embracing online teaching despite intermittent network connectivity especially in the rural areas teachers this year have adjusted seamlessly to technology.
Senior teacher of St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School, Shillong Susan Syiem recalled how teachers, parents and students were caught unprepared last year. “When the online mode became the last option, very senior teachers like me and most of my colleague found it very difficult to cope with the whole situation because we are not technology savvy but gradually we tried to equipped ourselves and learn all the needed procedure for online teaching from our colleague, children, and our friends just to be in touch with our students,” she said.
With things returning to normal as schools and colleges have reopened Syiem said now the focus is on reorienting students who seem to have lost focus and are off-track. But she also feels that teachers have always been sidelined and kept on the back seat.
“It would be nice for the government when everything bounces to normal to give the teachers more attention, especially on their rights, if they feel they need to take care of the pillars of the nation,” she added.
Syiem said that the focus on this ‘Teachers Day’ should not be on the teacher’s but more importantly on the students who have not been vaccinated.
“We who have been vaccinated may be asymptomatic carriers and I feel for the students who are our children so we should follow all the SOPs strictly and pray to God that all goes well.”
A teacher of Islamia Secondary School, GS ROAD, M Sazwal Uddin Mazumder said both academic and extracurricular activities were managed by teachers in their own innovative ways on various digital platforms.
He said taking online classes, conducting the assessment, correcting answers, conducting extracurricular activities; maintenance of all governments’ norms, etc. became a real challenge for teachers. Yet they were able to find out the ways and means without excuses but though e-learning was available internet connectivity remained pathetic, he added.
“Amid this pandemic, this year too Teachers’ Day will be missed. Either it will be celebrated in the usual manner or not but the Spirit of the Teachers’ Day will always be there in the hearts of the students and the teachers,” Mazumder said.
S. Dkhar, a teacher in one of the city schools said that new ways of teaching were embraced perfectly this year but ones who are losing out the most are the rural students and those from the economically poorer backgrounds.
“As you know, internet connectivity in the villages are poor. We as teachers have to find out where they are and what they are doing,” Dkhar said.
According to her, the parents are facing the biggest problem since they have to make do with one mobile phone for the children.
Dkhar also said that most of the teachers of her age are not very familiar with working with a mobile phone even as she said that they are mostly occupied with the students throughout the day. “Earlier before the pandemic we would be available with the students only for a few hours in a day, but now we have to attend to their messages, call them,” she said.
Meanwhile, Shahnaz L Sohliya, Special Educator, Jyoti Sroat School, Shillong said that during this pandemic, it has proven that teachers have shown great leadership and innovation to provide remote learning and ensure that learning gaps are mitigated.
“Teachers make an effort to find solutions to problems faced by students by creating new learning styles and new learning environments for them to continue their education,” Sohliya said.
According to her, teachers have learned the use of technology in a few days or in a week which proved that “Teachers are always learners”.
“Hats off to all the teachers for showing that action speaks louder than words,” she signed off.
