By: Rayees Masroor
Covid19 pandemic is not only posing a threat to the human lives across the globe but it has impacted all spheres of life drastically. ‘Work From Home’ is the new word of safety that has emerged more like a phenomenon since the pandemic and continues to be the most prominent concept for almost all spheres of life. Many a big businesses chose to let their employees and workers work from home owing to the threat of Convid19 and all sectors, be it government or private, laid great emphasis on safety from the pandemic. Education too went through the same process and in a matter of a few years; so many changes are already in place when it comes to knowledge sharing or teaching-learning process.
Students were also unable to attend schools in person and the closure of educational institutions posed a unique challenge to the Educational authorities to keep the process of Teaching Learning going on. Currently, as we know, the teaching and learning process relies mainly on technology as electronic based learning has become a necessity in order to ensure safety from the highly contagious virus. In the UT of J&K the authorities also switched to the online mode of teaching to reach out to the students amid the lockdown. This was however not an easy task as we are well aware that there is a huge digital divide and most of the students in the government run schools or even in the private schools do not possess the necessary electronic gadgets to receive online education. To counter the challenge of the digital divide, authorities in the valley supplemented the Online learning process by the initiative of Radio classes.
Education through Electronic media is not a new thing but the response it generated among the students, parents and teachers was remarkable. Director school Education, Kashmir empanelled a very dedicated and voluntary group of Radio and Teleclass Resource persons who, with great dedication and commitment, made this initiative a real success. After taking up the charge as DSEK Dr.Tasaduq Hussain Mir further encouraged and appreciated the Process of teaching through Radio and TV. In this endeavour, Nodal Officer of the program Mr.Javid Hussain Kirmani deserves appreciation for his unwavering efforts and willingness to keep the flow of teaching learning process going.
As part of this unique initiative recently a special training programme was organized for the Resource persons of Radio classes in SCERT Kashmir where media training and other necessary aspects of the teaching through Electronic media were highlighted by a high profile team of well known media trainers. The Program which was held between 27 to 29 December was designed in a beautiful manner. The various philosophical and pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning through media were discussed and rated by the distinguished speakers who interacted with the participants and encourages them for the initiative.
In the training programme, some distinguished radio personalities highlighted all the necessary aspects of Radio based education and through a series of examples communicated the various technical aspects and other relevant skills to the participating Resource persons. The insights shared with the participants were invaluable and equipped them with a fresh energy to go into the innovative method of teaching-learning.
With the resurgence of the Covid19 and the possible lockdown amid the third wave of the virus, it seems that the process of teaching-learning would once again be continued through the medium of Radio and television along with the zoom or YouTube classes. It’s said that every challenge comes with an opportunity and in this case the Radio based Education has not only provided an opportunity to the Resource persons/Teachers to hone their skills of teaching through Electronic media but also to the authorities to create a highly competent team of Radio RPs. The introduction of such an endeavour and the commencement of training programmes on teaching through Electronic media could be a huge bonus to the teachers and the student community as well. It is worth to mention that the much talked about ‘New Educational policy 2020’ also gives special importance to the online system of education and with the digital divide among the society Radio and TV could be great teaching platforms.
The writer is a columnist and Radio Resource person. rayeesrocks20@gmail.com
