20 June,2021 08:24 AM IST | Mumbai | Cynera Rodricks
Five-year-old Zac Britto is currently studying in senior KG at Don Bosco, Borivli. His mother Yoko Rai has signed him for a side class, where the only agenda is for kids to be themselves
While the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed us of many experiences that we were looking forward to, it has been a lot harder on toddlers, who are just entering school.
The learning milestone for preschoolers across India has taken a hit, and their first classroom experience, where they are taught everything from how to hold a pencil to socialising with peers, has been put on hold. Naturally, this has parents anxious.
Yoko Rai, music educator and professional ventriloquist, admitted her son Zac, 5, to Borivli's Don Bosco School last year, thinking he would be able to enjoy all the amenities the school had to offer. However, due to the pandemic, the classes shifted online. One of the biggest challenges she faced during this time was handing over an electronic gadget to her son. "At this point, you want children to see, learn and explore things physically. To suddenly hand him a mobile or laptop makes me uncomfortable," she says. To create a conducive environment for learning, Rai has arranged for a coffee table and chair for Zac, so that he knows this is where his virtual school is. "Since class interaction is minimal, it's really difficult for these kids to make friends online. I realised Zac was having trouble bonding with his classmates." To get him out of his shell, she has signed him up for another side class, where kids his age are allowed to interact as much as they want. There's no structure followed, and the teacher is allowed to indulge the kids.
Vashi resident Candice Martins, too, has been trying to make her son, Ethan Lewis, currently in kindergarten, understand the concept of school. "As a parent, I make him aware of the decorum he would have to maintain had he been in school. For instance, I tell him he can't just get up and go to the washroom, without taking the teacher's permission. I have also kept a set couple of clothes aside, which he wears only to school. I see to it that he logs in 15 minutes early. The idea is to set a routine." She thinks these small disciplinary measures will help him demarcate school from home.
To inject fun and creativity into learning, Vanessa D'Costa has pasted stickers, cut outs and charts of planets, birds and animals on the walls of their Borivli home for her son, Styne. "I also use DIY crafts using available materials to teach rhymes and short stories, which are taught in school," she says.
While parents admit that schools are doing the best they can to keep children engaged, it's the lack of validation from teachers that's posing to be a problem. "The teacher has to look at a screen with around 15 to 20 students and it's not possible for her to acknowledge everyone. There are times when Ethan has made a drawing and shows it on the screen, but the teacher doesn't respond. He then looks to me for acknowledgement. I have to make him understand that she has seen it, but she can't respond right now," says Martins.
Tanishq Sheikh is a preschool design specialist and owner of Teacher's Lounge Indi, a curriculum design and teacher training company. According to her, due to a short attention span, it's not easy for toddlers to focus on a device for long hours. "A virtual school can never replace a real school, however, this is our only option. To make this effective, teachers have to build a strong connect with these kids. Many teachers are also using phones, so they have to keep scrolling to check on all the students. I try to advise schools to have two teachers, so that one can teach and the other can monitor." Tanishq also advises teachers to give all students an equal chance to speak up. "In a physical world we don't have a mute button, we ask children to self-regulate, so the child automatically learns. This is an important part of their emotional and personal development which teachers tend to neglect or disregard. There's a level of disrespect towards the child when we don't let them speak. If you keep children constantly on mute, when will they know when to speak? I recommend teachers to put them on mute only for the first two weeks, but after that get them into the habit of listening to you or maybe ask them to raise their hands to ask for permission," says Sheikh.
. Greta Gonsalves, a senior KG teacher from St Mary's kindergarten, says they provide kids with teaching aids. "We record our own videos on how to write alphabets and numbers. There is a lot of animation involved in our presentations to make them catchy."
. Getting children to either do yoga, dance, or sing is an effective way to make children active during school hours, Tanishq Sheikh recommends. "Giving your child an incentive after he or she completes their homework also helps. Take a picture of their work and send it to their teacher. For children, appreciation is important. Teachers can make a Facebook group or a Google drive folder and they can drop their comments over there, in case they are unable to acknowledge all kids on call."
