NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s direction regarding online classes for students of classes Nursery to Class-5 in the city and NCR due to rising pollution faces a huge implementation gap due to lack of remote learning infrastructure for students of schools run especially by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Teachers and principals of these schools say that shifting to online mode during the pollution season has led to an evident disadvantage for the kids as most of them come from an economically disadvantaged background.

The Directorate of Education’s directive stated, “It has been decided that classes in physical mode for students of Nursery to Class 5 are discontinued till further orders for all government, government-aided and unaided private recognised schools of Delhi.”

“We conduct online classes and send a Zoom or Google meet link for them to join but only 25% are actually able to join,” said Ashok Kumar, Principal at MCD Pratibha Vidyalaya Marginal Bandh Old 2, Seelampur.

Echoing similar sentiments, another teacher from MCD Primary School, RK Puram Sector 4, Dalbir Singh said, “We try to include as many students as we can for the online classes but only 20% can join.”

“This is because these students mostly come from poor economic backgrounds and even if they have a smartphone at their homes, the father takes it to work and thereby it gets difficult to connect with them,” he added. Additionally, teachers pointed out to the lack of parental supervision among these children. Kumar said, “It is not possible to leave such young children alone with phones without adult supervision.”