Government school teacher takes classroom to students' doorsteps; Bags 'Best teacher' award presented by state government

A government school teacher from Jamalpuram in Vellore district brought the classroom to the doorsteps of his students to make sure that none of them miss the classes. Sakthivel, the teacher at government panchayat union primary school, has been taking classes this way for the past one and half a year. Since the pandemic, the physical classroom teaching has been replaced by online classes in order to control the spread of the COVID-19.

A student should have a mobile phone or a computer with internet connectivity for attending online classes. "There are about 30 students studying at the school from Class I to V and majority of them live in the locality and are financially not sound therefore not able to afford an electronic gadget," Sakthivel told TNIE.

Last year during the pandemic, the teacher pitched in the idea of teaching at the students' doorsteps with their parents and it worked out. I assigned online classes to about eight students who had the facility. And others living in a street near the school were given the option of attending the classes from their residences, said the teacher. "I bought a speaker for this purpose because my voice should be audible enough to reach the students. Like the school hours, I went with the speaker, sat on the roadside. Upon my cue, my students would come, pull a chair and sit at the doorsteps of their houses for the classes to begin," said Sakthivel.

This has been Sakthivel's routine and his students and parents are satisfied with the way the classes take place without being skipped. Sakthivel also adopts a different method of teaching. "I convert an entire lesson into a song and sing it to students. And, I believe that students are able to learn the lesson easily this way," said the teacher. Class V student Priyanka told TNIE, "Teaching a lesson by reciting it as a song is something that we like. He conducts competitions and encourages us to participate based on our willingness."

Jamalpuram primary school students maintain a track record of winning in district-level competitions in various events like debates, poem recitations, and speaking competitions, said the teacher.