Every few minutes in the course of a one-hour long online class, Pramod Tripathi, Class 5 teacher at the municipal-run Poisar Hindi Pathsha...
Every few minutes in the course of a one-hour long online class, Pramod Tripathi, Class 5 teacher at the municipal-run Poisar Hindi Pathshala in Mumbai, halted his explanation on the functions of the human brain to let students into the virtual classroom.
“Please don’t chalk it down to tardiness,” he explained later. “Not all students have access to a mobile device when the class begins, so I let them in whenever they are able to join.”
Mid-way through Tripathi’s class, a student frantically requested that she be allowed to exit the class briefly as her father had to receive an important incoming call. The family had just one mobile phone and was waiting to hear from the hospital where a relative, critically ill, was admitted. The teacher, familiar with the challenges faced by his students’ families, was accommodating.
Poisar Pathshala is one of 1,238 public schools run in eight mediums by Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. A report by its education department, published in the last academic year, had underscored the asymmetry of digital access in its schools. Only a little over half of the students, it said, had logged into online classes. Among those missing were students whose families had migrated from the city...
