Kollam District Collector Abdul Nasar takes class for upper primary students
Class 7 students of Government Town Upper Primary School here were in for a surprise when they saw a unfamiliar face on the screen during their online classes.
Standing there with a globe and introducing them to the basics of Geography was Kollam Collector B. Abdul Nasar, who also ensured their participation throughout the hour-long session.
Mr. Nasar, who started off with Class 4 students after Praveshanotsavam, plans to continue the exercise in a bid to make the e-learning experience more effective and engaging.
“I have been observing the problems associated with remote learning process, including those in terms of communication. Transitioning to online from our traditional schooling system comes with its own challenges and as a parent I have noticed distractions and shorter attention spans. It’s an attempt to motivate the students and make e-learning more effective,” he says.
Grabbing attention
The Collector turning into teacher and trying a more hybrid instructional method could definitely grab the attention of the seventh graders, who seemed very keen on answering the questions and doing the tasks.
Apart from generating an interest in students, Mr. Nasar sees the classes as a platform to identify technical and teaching-related glitches and rectify them. “There are network issues in some parts and steps have been taken to rectify them. If the teacher is not very active, most of the students will not pay any attention. You need a little more effort to make the sessions engaging and productive,” he says.
Mr. Nasar observes there is no point in sticking to old methods in a virtual learning environment as his classes received great feedback from the students. “I don’t believe in reading from the textbook in front of the students and forcing them to mug up,” he says.
Good response
The live-streamed sessions received thousands of comments and some students also used this an opportunity to ask questions outside the curriculum.
“The students were informed about the ‘new teacher’ and the subject just before start of the class. I will be teaching Class 10 students in my next session and I plan to continue this for some more time before we resume physical classes,” he adds.
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