C for chaos: Why hybrid is a headache in the classroom

The online-offline model was supposed to be the best of both worlds but both teachers and students say they are struggling

- Neha Bhayana

Students of Class 3 at The Ardee School, New Friends Colony, are learning about water conservation these days. Typically, teachers at the Cambridge board school in Delhi would have taken kids to the cafeteria so they could see first-hand how much water is used in the kitchen and brainstorm on solutions to reduce wastage. But though the school opened on Monday, the children in classrooms have to mostly stay put because half their classmates are at home, attending the lesson virtually as per the government guidelines mandating that schools offer hybrid learning. The teachers show a video about water scarcity using the Promethean board (a smart board that connects to the laptop) so online and offline students can see it simultaneously. Pooja Bhatia, head of primary at Ardee, says there’s no way out. “Earlier, we used the Promethean board for barely 10 minutes per session. Now, we sometimes use it for the entire 50 minutes because we want kids at home to access the lesson. So, children who are coming to school are still getting as much screen time as they were when they were sitting at home. This is really unfair but we teachers feel helpless. We can’t carry the laptop around with us on campus,” says Bhatia.