To curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government had ordered the closure of all educational institutions across the country even before declaring nationwide lockdown. All the educational institutions were closed even before 22 March and there is no possibility of reopening these educational institutions in the near future.
At such a time, the Punjab School Education Department and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi had instructed all school managements to train its staff for online studies till the reopening of schools. Though it was a new and unique initiative for teachers to educate the children online, most of the schools have been very successful.
The Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib has also pioneered the introduction of online education for more than 70,000 students studying in Akal Academies being run under its aegis, whose success is greatly appreciated by the parents of the students.
Most of the Akal Academies have been established in the rural areas. Due to lockdown, the rural students had to sit idle in their homes. They had to struggle a lot to get online education from the staff of Akal Academies. Where it was the very first experience of online studies for rural children, their parents did not have much experience with social networking apps. Akal Academies checked the school records for parents having mobiles and how many of them use WhatsApp for communication. Parents, who did not have a mobile phone, were asked to provide a WhatsApp number of a family member or neighbour. After all these efforts, the staff of Akal Academies started getting success and the number of children in the network increased to an extent. The online groups were created according to the classes and Akal Academies started forwarding videos, pictures and texts through WhatsApp and other social apps. As a result, their efforts gained immense success and the students are responding very well. When parents were contacted to get feedback about online studies, they told that they didn’t have much knowledge about these apps. So, they were given detailed information about study apps like Zoom through which their wards would get online studies.
On the occasion of World Earth Day, online painting competitions were held, in which the students uploaded their paintings on the social app, which were much appreciated by the teachers. Principals and staff of various Akal Academies informed that online painting competitions were a great success. Paintings showcased creativity of children and their awareness about the effects of coronavirus, social distance, use of sanitizers, etc. They informed that on the reopening of schools after the lockdown, all the winners will be awarded.
In fact, Akal Academies have provided a new platform for online education to children, for which the hardworking and experienced staff of these academies deserve kudos.
It is pertinent to mention here that this year, Akal Academies had provided the facility of online admissions, and the new entrants have been included in the study apps and current social apps. These students have been asked to forward all these online study materials with their relatives and friends to apprise them about the learning they have obtained through online studies.