Over 1 lakh school students attend neighbourhood classes in Tripura

Agartala, Aug. 21 (PTI): On its first day, over one lakh school students in Tripura attended neighbourhood classes in open places maintaining social distancing, a state minister said.

The state government has started neighbourhood classes for students, who do not have television sets or mobile phones, the minister said on Friday.

A total of 1.25 lakh students attended the classes on the first day on Thursday, Education minister Ratan Lal Nath said.

Under this system, a teacher will teach a maximum of five students by strictly maintaining social distancing. Every student must carry a mask and sanitise his hand before and after classes.

Students from class 3 to class 12 participated in the neighbourhood classes in the school ground or in an open space near the educational institution, the minister said.

“Schools and various other educational institutions remained closed for the past five months (due to Covid-19 pandemic) hampering the education of the students. We have formed committees with representatives from all political parties and organisations and on the recommendations of these committees, steps are being taken to teach the students.

“We have also asked the teachers not to pressurise any student to attend the neighbourhood classes if their parents are not willing,” Nath said.

After the lockdown started from March, the state government had introduced virtual classes through cable TV networks and android phones to engage the students in the process of learning.

But a survey conducted by the state Education department showed that all students did not have access to phones and TV.

The initiative will help students who could not take the benefit of the digital initiatives being run by the School Education department, the minister had said.

The survey conducted by his department in all the eight districts showed that 29 per cent (94,013) of the 3.22 lakh students did not have mobile phones and around 44 per cent (1.42 lakh) of the students did not have access to television, Nath said. “Since these students can’t avail our ongoing classes, we have decided to start neighbourhood classes with a 1:5 teacher student ratio, mostly in remote areas,” Nath said.