The community classrooms in Haryana are being set up in courtyards, rooftops or porches.
After missing online classes for four months, 8-year-old Hitesh is finally getting back to studies at a "Mohalla Pathshala" in a remote village in Haryana's Nuh district. He is among the 70,000 children of the district - around 70 per cent of the total - who had no access to online classes because of a lack of smartphones, TV or internet access.
To fill the gap, the administration came up with "Mohalla Pathshalas". Under the initiative, local young graduates or "shikshadoots" are voluntarily teaching children in community classrooms which are set up in courtyards, rooftops or porches. Only up to 15 children are allowed in a single batch and with social distancing.
Hitesh's mother Sunita Devi said, "Our house has only one smartphone and due to that children were unable to study properly. Hitesh has three siblings older than him and while they somehow shared and managed on that single phone, he used to miss out on his classes. But from the day the Mohalla Pathshala has begun, he has been able to study."
Muskan, a 15-year-old student said, "My father works as an accountant and during the lockdown, he used to stay at home. So I was able to take online classes properly. But now that he goes out for work and takes the phone along, I was unable to take classes. Mohalla Pathshalas have helped."
Nuh was identified as the most backward district in the country by NITI Aayog, the government's think-tank, in 2018.There are 1 lakh students of Classes 1-8 in the district and 70,000 of them were missing online classes. So far 4,300 kids have been covered under Mohalla Pathshalas which are being conducted across 125 villages by 246 local volunteers. The administration plans to expand the initiative to at least 50,000 children in the upcoming weeks.
The administration originally wanted only professional teachers for the initiative. But there was a shortage. According to the district's education department, half the posts for teachers are vacant. Therefore, volunteers had to be roped in.
Qamila Khan, 20, in Umra village is among the volunteers. She participated not only to gain teaching experience but also to save the future of several girls. She said, "In our village girls study far lesser than boys. They reach only till class 7th or 8th and then drop-out. It is very rare that a girl would cross class 10th. I thought that I am at home and I am free. I anyway want to work in the teaching field in future. So if I teach kids from this village then it will benefit them as well as me."
Mohalla Pathshalas seem like a good start but the ground reality also reveals that right now only basic topics are taught and volunteers need better communication skills. Government officials claim that they are working on improvements.
Anup Singh Jhakkar, District Education Officer of Nuh told NDTV, "We will focus more on Hindi and English so that daily they can write at least one page each in both languages. Right now we have just started connecting the kids back. We will improve the quality too as we go forward."