A recent study conducted by the Azim Premji University has shown that 81% of teachers encouraged students to use their local dialects and languages and 75% of them brought in local context (which was not in the textbook) while teaching, to help students cope with the loss of learning suffered during the two years of pandemic.
The report, titled ‘Teacher efforts to support learning recovery after school reopening,’ further says that 89% of teachers helped their students return to classroom routines by making space for them to share their narratives and experiences.
The study aimed at understanding the efforts of teachers who continuously kept their students engaged throughout the time of closure of schools and also focussed on learning recovery post reopening of schools. A total of 1,644 students (classes 2 to 5) and 108 teachers across 41 districts of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand were a part of the study between January and April.
The study revealed that upon returning to school, a significant number of students from all grades could not demonstrate the language and mathematical abilities from their previous two grades. Especially among third grade students, 70% did not display their language abilities and 57% did not display mathematical abilities, which they had learnt in the first and second grade. However, a marginal improvement was observed amongst all the students in both subjects after seven weeks at school (with teachers’ efforts).
“While in no way attempting to establish a simple causal relationship, it is clear overall that the efforts of teachers included in the study have had some impact on learning recovery, although much work is still required. Also, it may be recalled that the abilities assessed in this study are from the previous two classes (with the exception of class 2) and not class-appropriate abilities. Even as students are now in the process of moving to the next class, they are still not proficient in the abilities of two classes below. In other words, hardly anything has been learnt in the past two years, and if we go on with a business-as-usual attitude, the loss in learning will soon be insurmountable,” the report said.
