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Video Editor: Prashant Chauhan
Video Producer: Aastha Gulati
Camera: Areendam Dutta
The narrow gullies of Malad’s Ambujwadi in Mumbai are always busy and in motion. We have been teaching several students in the slum area since 2014. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and a paradigm shift to online learning, how these students learn or retain information has changed dramatically.
A lot of students are in Class 10 and have their board exams in less than two months. While the government of Maharashtra allowed schools to reopen for Classes 9 to 12 from 23 November 2020, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has still not allowed schools to reopen in Mumbai. While enrolled in private schools, these students are by no means on an equal footing with those who have access to resources like mobile phones or laptops, or with those from the rest of the state whose schools have already reopened.
Students from low-income families do not have the luxury to learn online. Many of them are having to share a mobile phone with their siblings. Lack of resources is an impediment to their growth. The closure of schools (almost a year since) has exposed the digital divide in the country and the challenges to virtual learning, as 27 percent of school children do not have smartphones/laptops to access online classes. Access to internet is another issue as mobile data packs exhaust quickly.
Students in and outside Mumbai, whose schools have reopened, will be appearing for the same exams – Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSC) – conducted by the Maharashtra Board, starting 29 April. This exam decides their junior college.
Ambujwadi’s young minds feel they will not be able to perform well in the examinations and hope they are postponed so that they can perform better.
Most also say that classroom learning helps better in retaining what is being taught.
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Published: 11 Mar 2021,07:33 PM IST