Online classes have returned, but so has students’ struggle to log in

Last week, Prem Singh, a social worker, was forced to abandon an official trip and rush back home from Bihar after the Delhi government announced that schools for children up to Class 5 will run fully online.

- Hemani Bhandari, Aaditya Khatwani and Gargi Shukla

The reason: His is the only phone number registered with the government senior secondary school where his daughter studies in Class 3. Now, the father and daughter have a new routine - every morning, they walk 500 metres to a relative's house in west Delhi's Basai Darapur which has an internet connection.

"She studies in a Delhi government school close to our house. We don't have WiFi," Singh said. From sitting in a classroom with her fellow students, seven-year-old Pranshi's school-day has now transformed into attending lessons over a six-by-six-inch screen via a link sent by the school. Even after all this, it has not been a smooth transition for them. "Sometimes, the teacher doesn't show up for classes," Singh said. Then, all the effort he makes in ensuring his daughter is able to get her education, he added, feels futile.

On December 13, as the pollution situation in the Capital deteriorated, the directorate of education (DoE) ordered all government, government-aided, and unaided recognised private schools to shift to hybrid teaching for all classes except 11 and 12, and entirely online for students up to Class 5.

But, on the ground, the transition has proved far more complicated. Parents and students have in the past two weeks or so brought issues from internet connectivity and access to resources to a general disinterest from teachers.

In west Delhi's Sudhamapuri, 25-year-old Soni Devi is in a fix. Her six-year-old daughter, a class one student who at a Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, has not been able to attend classes because of poor internet connectivity.