After the two-years of the pandemic-enforced break, students seem to have become a different species altogether. Forced to skip playschool, some of the little ones are yet to be toilet-trained, do not know their names and are wailing like there’s no tomorrow. The older ones are failing to make friends or are dozing off in class. A month into offline classes and teachers seem to have their hands full.
Diapers to school
A junior school teacher of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) says they are at their wits’ end. “Do we teach or pacify the ever-wailing children? They are coming in diapers, with feeding bottles, crying and vomiting left, right and centre,” says the teacher.
Normally children joining preparatory classes have basic training from playschools, but with the last two years indoors, these kids are having to start from scratch at a much later age than usual. “We are having to teach them things they should have known by now — copying off the black board, using the washroom, eating on their own… It’s more work for us,” says Pritha Laha of Kalyani Public School in CL Block.
It’s not pre-schoolers alone who are exhibiting age-inappropriate behaviour. Middle school students are acting like kids too. “We’re not used to seeing Class VIII students complain about petty things but they are full of them: “Ma’am, he did this to me; Ma’am he called me that,’” says Payel Das, who teaches English at CA Block’s Salt Lake School.
These students, she says, have lost their childhood. “They may have got promoted but they haven’t grown up,” she says.
“Middle and high school students have become overly emotional too. They are bursting into tears if unable to solve sums. Some are sitting alone, unable to make friends,” she says.
Asleep in exam hall
Priyanka, a primary school teacher of DPS Megacity, says students have forgotten that they are to stand and greet a teacher walking into a class. “Many are getting hungry at odd hours too but we are allowing students of up to Class III to much something during class. We shall wean them off the habit gradually,” she says.
Students getting sluggish and sleepy, having no memory of climbing stairs in single file, coming late to school…these are common complaints. Why, a sector III school has even witnessed students falling asleep during exams! “And these are Class X pre-boards, no less,” says their teacher. “We had to physically push these students out of their slumber and make them complete their papers. One of them didn’t show up at all and when we called her up she said she had overslept!”
General discipline has gone down too — bizarre haircuts, nail polish, mehendi and cellphones are sneaking into campus. “Students have been caught clicking selfies in the washroom or checking their notifications between classes,” says Das.
Pampered princes
A Bangur Avenue resident, who teaches the primary section of a south Calcutta school, feels students have been spoilt by parents over these two years. “They cannot even eat on their own and even if they do, they expect me to, say, throw the peel in the bin after they are done with the banana. Or if they drop their books on the floor they ask me to pick them up,” she says.
The Sector III school teacher too says kids have become stubborn. “And what’s worse is that parents are accusing teachers of, say, not feeding their wards tiffin! This isn’t something we are expected to do in school,” she says.
There are students who cannot say their names, do not recognise their bags and one student folds her hands stiffly and refuses to touch anything at all. “Upon prodding, her parents revealed it was they who had taught her not to touch anything for fear of coronavirus,” says the teacher, adding that one child even hinted at wanting to go breastfeed!
Drop in focus
The sector III school’s teacher makes says students get fidgety in as little as 15 minutes. “Thereafter they’ll either stare at you like zombies or get restless. Concentration level has become laddoo,” she says, although empathising with students who have had to leave the comfort of their AC rooms and into classrooms that are no cooler than furnaces.
The Bangur Avenue teacher complains students have lost the ability to write independently. “So long it was parents who did the writing for them and now the kids are at sea. They have forgotten to converse in English too,” she says.
Pandemic of obesity
Almost all teachers spoken to said their students had put on oodles of weight and have lost stamina. “Previously they wouldn’t want to sit but now they just keep asking for breaks to rest and drink water,” says dance teacher of Salt Lake School, Sreemoyee Kaushiki Basak Dey.
The sports teacher of a Sector III school says tots are scared of the outdoors. “Even with me holding them, they tremble when asked to use slides,” she says.
“But the older students have sought permission to refrain from structured sports for three months so they can simply run and play. Even the Muslim students are running without worrying about their fast,” says the teacher.
But a single games class a week isn’t going to help students shed the tyres they have put on. “I’m urging them to indulge in sports at home but I know they have no time now what with offline schools and tuitions taking up all their time,” she says.
Let alone sports, the Bangur Avenue teacher says their students have even lost the habit of climbing stairs in school.
Relief for teachers
Given the fresh challenges of offline classes, a workshop was held recently at the Mrittika centre, next to Golden Tulip. It was organised jointly by the NGO Initiative for Scientific and Public Awareness Target (Ispat), Rotary Club of Salt Lake Central and the state commission for protection of child rights.
“Teachers waged nothing short of a war during the pandemic balancing online classes with their domestic chores. We wanted to hold a workshop with experts to help relieve some of their stress,” said secretary of Ispat, Ritesh Basak.
Speaking at the event was Yashabanti Sreemany, psychologist and member of the commission for protection of child rights. “We are holding teacher interactions with schools around the state, especially after offline classes started and have noticed common problems. Students are suffering from a lack of discipline, punctuality and structured life. Some are getting performance anxiety at the thought of having to write offline examinations and even good students are scoring less than they should as they have lost the practise of writing,” said Sreemany, asking school counsellors to come forward and speak to students at this difficult time.
As for teachers themselves, they are going through a lot of stress now and must take time out for themselves, practicing meditation or deep breathing. “Many go home and spend time with their own children but again that usually means helping them with homework. Take time out to do something fun,” she advised.
Many teachers said an unexpected bonus of returning to school was: “not having to teach parents. Whatever the quality, students are doing classwork themselves now,” said a BVB teacher. “As for the shouting, heat and travelling, yes, it is strenuous once again but this is what we signed up for when we became teachers. This is way better than speaking into phone screens,” said Ankita Dutta of Salt Lake Indira Gandhi Girls Senior Secondary School in AA Block.
Inputs from Showli Chakraborty
Write to saltlake@abp.in
