In the midst of COVID third wave, the new initiative of one school in Rajkot has become an inspiration for other schools. Parents are called to the school and taught by the teachers, later parents go home and teach their children what they learn in school. This is an effort made to curb mobile addiction of children and to protect them from the Coronavirus.
Many parents and teachers are expressing discomfort regarding online education. Looking at this, one of the schools in Rajkot found out this solution. The school has taken a unique initiative to protect children from COVID-19 and to keep them away from mobiles also. From the beginning of the pandemic and after the lockdown to this day, the school teaches parents of children instead of teaching them online or offline. More than 100 students are studying in nursery, HKG and LKG in this school. After the lockdown, the parents are called to the school and the teachers are asked to conduct a study with the parents maintaining all COVID protocols to curb the mobile addiction of the children and to protect them from the virus. Later, parents go home and become teachers and teach their children.
The principal of the school Varshaben Popat said that at present the school has more than 100 students. All of these students are between the ages of 3 to 6. She further said that only 4 to 5 parents are called who are fully vaccinated. "We don't call parents on a daily basis but we call them every 15th day and teach a fortnight course together. Parents go home and teach their children after learning the 15-day course together and, accordingly, the video of the children is shot and sent to the teacher. Therefore, if there is any mistake of the child, the teacher guides the parent and teaches them to read, write and speak," said Varshaben.
Unnati Vasavada, a parent said, "The good news is that if you look around, you will find parents of students are more worried as they are required to observe their kids more closely than what was earlier done by the teachers in the class. They have to keep an eye on their kids to check if they are being attentive in the virtual class and are not wasting time in other activities. I believe that every school should start this initiative and keep children away from mobiles as long as possible, which has two main advantages, one is that the child's eye will not be damaged and the other is that the parents will know for themselves what the child is studying, which parents cannot realise in online education."
Ophthalmologist Dr Parimal Desai said, "In the new era of online education, children are exposed to technology at younger ages than ever before. So nowadays, we mainly see cases of 'Computer Vision Syndrome' in children have increased since COVID started. In this syndrome, the child's eyes become red as a constant glance at the computer causes dry eyes, eye irritation and more. Long hours of online classes, prolonged reading on the mobile screen and watching it from close range may result in these types of problems."
''Prolonged use of earphones can result in noise-induced deafness. It can also cause tinnitus and the child may experience ringing sounds in the ear. Severe exposure may cause inability to hear certain frequencies," says Dr Neha Shah an ENT surgeon.
