Technology is a boon for this school chain in Lucknow in the times of Corona Crisis

Lucknow, May 11 : Anupama Sondhi of CMS, Gomti Nagar campus taught 33 students of Grade 9 about India's constitution - a hot topic in India's current milieu - over Google Classrooms. At the same time, a large number of the Class 12 students of the same school were busy in précis writing while Anupma Johari held fort armed with several leaves and small plants over video, asking students to identify different parts of the leaves and several voices perking up to answer in unison.

            As city after city fell silent under the grip of the countrywide lockdown in March, the CMS got a golden chance - albeit in an unhappy macro scenario - to test online learning, something it had been working towards for close to 8 years. The early bird catches the worm and this worm has been firmly caught, if the sheer number of classes, videos and the volume of data being generated by the school during the Covid-19 lockdown is anything to go by.“CMS's ability to deliver is primarily due to its head start.

            As early as 2011-12, education expert and academician Geeta Gandhi Kingdon (chair of education economics and international development at University College, London) was keenly aware of which way the wind was blowing. She could see the potential and benefits of online learning and could also see how it could solve some of the inherent flaws in the traditional way children are taught.

            That's why almost eight years ago, Kingdon and the CMS management started to bring her family run chain of schools in Lucknow - the City Montessori schools - with 57,000 children across 18 branches up to speed with online learning and teaching. The school up an e-learning department, directly supervised by its Director of Strategy, Roshan Gandhi. This department immediately started intensive training curriculums for its teachers.

            What made CMS more vigilant towards online learning was the fact that students often lost valuable time in Lucknow as the district magistrate often calls for closure of schools due to inclement weather. To overcome hiccups like these, CMS had set up Google classrooms for every grade and every child over Class 6 had a Gmail account and email address even prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

            Around March 8th, anticipating closure, the e-learning department conducted a refresher training of all the campus IT Assistants and teachers. Emails of students in Class 3, 4 and 5 were created with the staff and teachers working overtime, as senior classes already had them. "For cognitive and emotional well being, children need routine, structure and regularity, and they also need social connection with peers. This is what we as teachers are most concerned with", adds Abha Anant, principal of the CMS Gomti Nagar branch.

            Attendance and participation is now varying between 70-75 per cent (in the low attendance campuses) to 90 per cent in the high attendance ones. "We have been working with two primary objectives: "No teacher left behind" and "no child left behind", explains Kingdon. She says things are "far from perfect" but this has been a forced learning experience even for the school. Progress is being measured regularly and the 18 principals have Zoom meetings to keep abreast of how everyone is faring. To keep morale high and results good, CMS has always invested in talent and experience. Teachers at CMS are paid better than most government and private schools in the city with primary full-time recruits starting at around Rs 6 lakh per annum while senior level salaries are higher with Rs 12 lakh per annum paid to experienced senior teachers. The per month fee in classes 11 and 12 is Rs 8860, all-inclusive.

            Almost all schools around the country have jumped in to try and provide their students some kind of routine, structure and learning during the Covid-19 crisis but in most cases the online teaching has been scrappy for a host of reasons including poor connectivity, a lack of appropriate devices, lack of teacher preparedness, inability of parents to assist their wards, lack of familiarity with technology or at times even sheer apathy. Very few institutions - mostly in much higher fee brackets - are managing to do a robust job. A head start helped CMS stay a bit ahead of the curve. The Covid-19 crisis may not be premeditated but online education has been rearing its head for a while now.