Nagpur: One of the biggest impacts that the pandemic-induced online schooling has had is on younger kids who are in the process of transitioning from pre-primary to the formal education ecosystem which starts from Std I.
Both, the last academic session as well as the one coming up, will see batches of Std I students progressing into the world of formal education without even stepping foot on the school campus.
Academics say this threshold of Std I acts as a bridge between the ‘over protective’ environment of pre-primary to the more ‘independent’ formal schooling years.
“They enter our campus gates as kids and leave as young adults in Std XII,” said Jayshree Bhake, principal of GH Raisoni Vidya Niketan (CBSE).
“This Std I phase is extremely crucial because for the first time the child becomes more self-reliant and expressive.
Academically, there’s a big change because subject-specific teachers are introduced, the number of hours and subjects also increase.
During assembly, these kids would see or interact with older students and that helps in development of their social skills,” she said.
Sonal Fuke, director of pre-primary school Toddler Creed, said, “School is not just about reading books.
It also includes collaborative activities, face to face interaction with teachers and classmates.
Due to online school, students don’t have access to these activities, their communication is limited with their families.
The positive impact is that these students are adapting to the usage of technology which in a few years will become a huge part of our day to day lives.” Aruna Rao, principal of Central India Public School (Kamptee), said that even though online classes are of ‘high quality’, they are not a substitute for the conventional methods.
“While innovative teaching methods are being used, the drawback was that students were not able to get access to physical classrooms and face to face interaction was missing between the student and teachers,” she said.
Ashnaryan Tiwari, principal of Adarsh Vidya Mandir (Gandhibagh), said foundation years are extremely important.
“Going from the play-way method of pre-primary to our formal set up in Std 1 is a process in which the child has to be eased into.
Slowly, in one or two years they are acquainted with the campus, a friend circle is established, network or acquaintainces be it teachers or senior students also increases and that’s how the assimilation process takes shape.
But with that not happening anymore, it will be only in Std III or IV that many of these kids will have that comfort level,” said Tiwari while clarifying that the difficulty will only be for introvert kids.
Parent Dhaval Shah said that while from a health point of view it’s good that kids are at home, but there’s no denying that they are missing ‘something’.
Shah said, “Forging friendships is something which they are missing out on.
Going to the school ground and playing with new friends has all become a thing of the past.
This of course affects their health too because now they are sitting in front of tabs and laptops which can cause eye problems.” Another parent, Priya Bhalotiya, feels that some aspects of physical schooling are indeed being missed by kids.
“Schools are doing their level best to incorporate a variety of activities so that kids can concentrate but till they don’t get that environment of physical classes they won’t understand what it means to attend classes at school along with their classmates, meeting them regularly, etc.” However, parent Vanshika Betala feels that kids are adapting well even under the new teaching ecosystem.
“I think online classes are working absolutely fine and even schools are putting in efforts to mould children’s personalities through this mode.
The online system can be appropriate for the long run if right steps are taken by the school,” said Betala.