Page 46 - EW August 2021

Cover Story

Shukla Bose
Founder, Parikrma Humanity
Foundation, Bengaluru
hukla Bose is the promoter-di-
rector of the Bengaluru-based
SParikrma Humanity Founda-
tion (PHF, estb.2003) which has
promoted four free-of-charge K-12
schools and one junior college with
an aggregate enrolment of 1,800
slum children mentored by 200
teachers.
Most Parikrma children don’t have
access to digital gadgets and Internet
connectivity. How have you ensured
learning continuity during the past year
of schools closure?
Parikrma students live in
Bengaluru’s numerous hidden and
neglected slums. For them, schools
are not only places of learning but
also places of refuge where they are Most of our parents are daily wage schools because we will soon com-
fed and kept safe. Our children are labour and lost their jobs during the plete vaccinating all teachers and
more vulnerable and at risk outside lockdown. We were getting reports their families, all our staff such as
of school. Therefore, how quickly that our children were existing on maids, drivers, security etc, and
we responded to the forced schools bread and water for many days their families, all our parents, and
closure was very important for us against three meals they are pro- even their neighbours. We have also
because we feared many of our vided in our schools. Therefore, we designed comprehensive protocols
children would drop out of education started distributing rations to our for safety and sanitation of school
altogether. children’s families. Thus far, PHF premises, changed the design and
In March 2020, we launched an has distributed 100,000 meals and structure of our classes to suit the
aggressive fundraising campaign and we continue to distribute rations digitally-enabled hybrid learning
made a public appeal for donation of even to this day. Following reports of model, and will run our schools in
old smartphones. We received about an increase in domestic violence and two shifts to maintain social distanc-
600 phones. Since none of our stu- abuse, we installed a helpline — Pari- ing.
dents has Internet access at home, krma Listening Post — manned by
we provided them Internet data school psychologists. This helpline What’s your advice to government to
packs. Simultaneously, we trained receives more than 100 calls per day make up for lost academic ground in the
our teachers on how to run digital from our children and their parents. pandemic era?
classes and roped in some parents to We believe we have been able to Government should not delay re-
oversee our online classes. We also prevent quite a few suicides through opening schools. Children enrolled
engaged our alumni to be learn- this helpline. in government and budget private
ing supervisors and visit children’s schools are safer in school than at
homes when possible. This compre- Should schools be reopened now? What home. My advice to government and
hensive collaborative online learning safety precautions have you instituted examination boards is to carefully
initiative was christened ReachV for reopening? prune prescribed syllabuses and de-
School™ — Reaching Children I believe schools should be reopened vise innovative bridge programmes
Virtually. We began online classes right away with adequate safety for children to make up for many
from April 1, 2020 long before many protocols. In PHF, we believe the months of learning loss.
schools. Fortunately, our efforts best option to make schools safe is Moreover, government and exam
have paid off and online attendance for managements to take respon- boards must devise alternate ways
is 87-90 percent every day. More- sibility for vaccinating all teachers to assess children’s progress in-
over, Parikrma has been paying full and their families and the families stead of scrapping exams. But most
salaries to all our teachers and staff of all students. We have purchased important, it must protect and invest
throughout the pandemic. Sputnik V vaccines from Dr. Reddy’s in teachers. Government school
Lab and the foundation has been ad- teachers have been forced into Covid
Learning continuity apart, how did you ministering vaccines to at least 200 duties without adequate protection
deal with the disruption of the mid-day and vaccination, and more than 400
meal programme as well as psychologi- people per day in our schools, totally teachers in Karnataka and 1,700
free-of-charge.
cal trauma of children suffering parental teachers in Uttar Pradesh have died
job losses? PHF is ready to reopen all our during the pandemic.

46 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2021