Exhaustion and enthusiasm: Tales of teachers post COVID-19 

Teachers are going the extra mile to get students adjusted back to the classroom atmosphere

The last two years, as COVID-19 hit the world, the notion of a classroom and the role of a teacher transformed like never before.

Teachers learned to negotiate virtual classrooms with all their attendant problems. Now, switching back to physical classrooms, after a gap of two years, has not been easy either.

This Teachers’ Day, The Hindu spoke to teachers across various schools in Bengaluru, who are taking the extra mile to make learning easy for their students post the pandemic.

This year, as students came back to schools, the greatest challenge was to bring them back into the “classroom mood.” Across classes, the issue of adaptability manifested in different ways. From separation anxiety, reduced academic abilities, digital addiction to, what one teacher called, “classroom snacking”, they had to patiently deal with different issues. 

“Bringing them back to the classroom setting was very difficult. There was a lot of fighting and complaining and discipline had taken a big hit. But the only way to deal with them is by working out solutions at their level. The students want all learning to be playful now,” said Lakshmi, who teaches Hindi at Vasavi Vidyanikethan School.  

Another teacher at the same school, Nalini Rajesh, said that the expectations of parents have gone up and teachers have had to pay special heed to their concerns. “As they observed that children were falling a little behind in academics, they wanted us to give more homework and tests.” The teachers have also rolled out a “bag and book-free” out-bound language development programme to strengthen basic skills. 

Despite the challenges, all the teachers said that the pleasure of teaching lies in getting to interact with students in real classrooms.