Page 55 - EW August 2021

from accessing education. All
virtual learning programmes were Ashok Pandey including parental choice and
chosen carefully to ensure they Director, Ahlcon Group of safety measures put in place by
worked on ordinary smartphones Schools schools to prevent the spread of the
with low-bandwidth. Moreover Coronavirus. With most teachers
to make certain that some stu- r. Ashok Pandey is direc- vaccinated and the threat of the
dents don’t miss out on an entire tor of the CBSE-affiliated virus reduced, the odds are in
day’s learning because of technol- DAhlcon Public School (APS, favour of reopening schools.
ogy glitches, we offer a blend of estb.1998) and Ahlcon International The risk of massive learning loss
synchronous and asynchronous School (2001), Delhi, with an ag- is overweighing children’s health
learning. Although online classes gregate enrolment of 5,700 students risks. Our Ahlcon schools are ready
are conducted, we also send every and 310 teachers. to reopen with all child safety
student pre-recorded videos of the protocols in place, and there is
day’s teaching. 20,000 such video How satisfied with
modules were prepared and sent to APS’ transition to
students in the past year. online learning.
It’s important to remember that For a teacher, the
while everyone has suffered during greatest gift is
the past 16 months, the quietest the company of
voices have been of children. Our students. However,
CAGS Care team is doing a great the pandemic
job of providing mental health has taken away
support to children and parents to this gift. In the
overcome pandemic anxiety and circumstances, I
stress. am amazed by the
resilience of our
Several state governments have teachers — and
passed fee reduction orders in the students — their
pandemic year. How have you coped creativity and
with this financial exigency? ability to initiate
CAGS takes pride in being an em- and adjust to change. discernable urgency among parents
pathetic institution. We unilater- The second pandemic wave was to send children back to school.
ally revoked the mutually agreed more challenging as many families
fees increase of the academic year struggled with illness and death. Estimation of learning loss and
2020-21 in April 2020, much be- This affected children’s learning remedial education. Learning loss
fore any government order was is- adversely, but our teachers stepped is in direct proportion to the
sued. Moreover in another gesture up to provide socio-emotional degree of digital access students
of goodwill towards parents, we re- support. On our part we ensured have had over the past year. But
duced our annual fees by Rs.3,000. teachers’ preparedness, students’ overall, pre-existing learning gaps
Despite this, through tight institu- access to the Internet and digital have widened. We are ready with
tional management we continue to devices, and online engagement. a contingency plan to respond to
pay full salaries to all teachers and During the pandemic, we witnessed this situation. We have identified
staff. While doing this balancing teacher leaders emerge to make learning gaps from past results,
act hasn’t been easy, we believe it the transition to the online mode current assessments and diagnostic
is necessary in this unprecedented seamless. tests. Timely remedial and
pandemic crisis. bridge courses will be organised
Major factors that enabled a smooth accordingly.
What are your plans to deal with future adaptation to online teaching-learning.
pandemic disruptions? The survival instinct of early 2020 Advice to government to recover lost
After a successful year of online morphed into reconstruction and learning. Efforts made by govern-
teaching-learning, we are begin- new learning. The management’s ment to reach under-served chil-
ning to notice signs of fatigue swift adoption of remote teaching dren are well-meaning. However,
in students. Therefore, in our and new tech tools, and sharing public school children are being
e-learning programme we will be and collaboration among teachers taught through one-way media
placing greater emphasis on physi- helped us make the switch such as television and radio. Gov-
cal and mental well-being of our seamless. Parents, friends and ernment needs to provide vulner-
children. However, we are hopeful families chipped in with socio- able children access to interac-
that schools will reopen soon for emotional support and helped to fill tive online learning. The right to
which eventuality, our schools are gaps created by social isolation and Internet connectivity is the new
fully prepared and compliant with distancing. right to education in the pandemic
government mandated Covid-19 era. Every effort to deliver learning
safety protocols. We are ready to Whether reopening schools is overdue. material to students’ homes should
welcome our students back and get This depends on several factors also be made.
our campuses humming again.

AUGUST 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 55