‘COVID-19 gave us an opportunity to forge stronger, more trusting relationship between teachers and students’

March 2020 will always be recorded as the time in the annals of world history when all the schools around the globe closed their doors. As teachers and school leaders around the world hardly suggested any forewarning to pivot to some form of remote learning, parents and families around the world faced the biggest shock of their life as they could never think of life without schools. 

In fact, the schools of their wards were just like anchors around which revolved their daily routine. In this period of global turbulence, came forward doctors, nurses, NGOs and millions of volunteers to serve humanity in their best of capacities. 

Teachers, the architect of nations, took leapfrog and thought of various innovative ways of how to keep the children engaged during these dark hours and support them in their studies in the most creative way. 

Hats off to the teachers! it was not an individual issue. It required many brains to come together and bring in the solution. E-meetings were frequently conducted on Zoom / Google Meet etc. and the problems were sorted out. We, at Modern School, had fully Wi-Fi supported audio-visual 3rd generation smart class rooms from where online classes could be conducted easily but during the Covid-19 pandemic it seemed to be a Herculean task as constantly rising pandemic cases had shut down the campus and more than 50% of the students and teachers as well, had no individual laptops or the required apparatus at home. 

Then mobile phones – Android / Smart phones came to rescue. Mobiles which were not allowed in the campus earlier – now became the lifeline during the pandemic. Online classes could now easily be conducted through various Apps. 

Besides, we at Modern School, developed thousands of videos and digital worksheets related to various subjects and classes. ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning – system was used to get connected with the parents and the students on various modules. “Google Forms” were used to conduct MCQs, “Padlet”, Wakelet, Flipgrid, Quizzes, Canva, Google Drive and many such innumerable apps were utilised to give maximum convenience to students and parents as well to go ahead with the syllabus in the most creative way – breaking the monotony of this period. 

E-books, story books like many such Apps were used to give a boost to the creativity of students. Basically, the goal was to develop a good bonding with the parents so that they have a clear understanding of the materials – their children were accessing – including the weekly / fortnightly / tests and assignments which were made available on their phones. 

More than 98% of parents engaged with teachers through ePTM – Electronic Parent Teacher Meetings. The biggest challenge till then was how to establish the parent-teacher-student connection in case of the first generation learners – Pre-Nursery to Kindergarten children. 

This pandemic brought the parents of little kids to the close connect of teachers. Now, they themselves are eager to contribute as allies to learning with kids. Ultimately the Covid-19 pandemic proved as an opportunity to forge stronger and more trusting relationship between teachers and students. 

Society also recognized the teachers as heroes. Therefore, the teachers were applauded throughout the world for their invaluable contribution for the society. 

When a respectful relationship among parents, teachers, families and schools is at the centre, powerful support occurs in children’s learning. Though the global pandemic has left many scars in the growth of schools – particularly it badly affected the financial structures of the schools and the schools will certainly take a long time to come up to, every child deserves a powered up school and it is possible only when all the stakeholders work together and take education forward. 

Neelima Jain, principal, Modern Public School, Sector 17, Faridabad. Views expressed in this article are personal.