Rangpur Online School celebrated one month completion on May 9:

Rangpur Online School celebrated one month completion on May 9. The school began its journey on April 9 of the year in a bid to minimize the academic loses amid the lockdown due to global pandemic Covid- 19.  The school authority has taken elaborate programs- seminar, workshop on education, plenary sessions, virtual meetings, debate on digital learning and interview with noted educationists, education official’s students and policy makers in observance of the day.

Academic activities of around 40 million students in all types of educational institutions across the country are being severely affected due to countrywide lock-down. Over a million teachers and other school personnel have been confined to their homes.

The government has taken alternative measures shifting to online platform from the traditional mode of face to face teaching to recover the academic losses.  The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) in coordination with Access to Information (a2i) project have begun the academic classes through Sangsad Bangladesh Television. The TV is telecasting recorded classes of the best teachers for students of class VI to class X during the lock down due to coronavirus outbreak. The classes are telecast between 9am and 9pm

A DSHE Director, Professor Sirajul Islam -   said the programme has been taken to reduce the academic losses of the students. The online schools are also making significant contribution in education during the crisis

A number of online schools from eight divisions across the country have also been operating the academic activities.   

Rangpur Online School launched the academic activities on April, 09 with some dedicated and promising teachers and staffs from eight districts of the division. 

Principal, Robertsongonj High School & College, Rangpur, Zakir Hossain who was also an editor of Rangpur online school page said. , we started the online schooling as there is no scope of face to face teaching - learning opportunity due to lock down

Initially, we the ICT4E district Ambassadors of eight districts under Rangpur division joined a web based ZOOM meeting on April, 9 and decided to launch Rangpur Online School considering the deadlock situation of the academic activities.

We maintained a class routine from Primary to Higher Secondary level. The classes are telecast between 9am and 9pm in Rangpur Online School face book page.  Live and recorded classes of the renowned teachers of different subjects are also aired and uploaded in the School page. The post of the page reach to 2.04796 and the engagement is 113, 996 viewers 

Mohammad Shahajan, a guardian of a student, said, students and the guardians get suggestions of the teachers of different schools attending the live and recorded classes in the digital platform amid the confinement’’.

Rifa Khatun, a student of class Nine of Police Lines School & College, Rangpur said, they are getting benefit attending the Sangsad Television classes and the Rangpur Online School staying at home.

Access to Information [a2i] Official- Avijit Saha said, digitalization in Bangladesh creates the scope of online schooling.  He appreciated the efforts of Rangpur Online School.

He also said, the teachers who are attending the classes going to studio of Sangsad Tv or to digital platforms [different online schools across the country] amid the pandemic of Covid-19 deserve great thanks and gratitude.

Dhaka University Institute of Education and Research (IER) professor Dr Mohammad Ali Jinnah said, teachers and students can be benefitted attending the online virtual class staying at home during the lock down.   But it is not alternative of formal schooling. Most of the students in the country are underprivileged who will not get access the online platform.  Attending online class on a regular basis has a cost implication too, as the students have to bear the cost of internet services.  Teachers, Students and guardians are not provided the internet service at free of costs or subsidized data packs. He urged the government to take measures in this regard to facilitate the online learning.  

Zakir Hossain

Principal

Robertsongonj High School & College

Alamnagar. Rangpur

[email protected]