Amid Limitations, India Finds New Learning Methods In The Age Of COVID-19

Photo illustration (Timon Studler / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Since the outbreak of COVID-19, online learning has grown to be the most generic choice. However, these emergency learning schemes often cause many problems. In India, students are forced to study via loudspeakers. They call it "Speaker Brother" and "Speaker Sister".

As we discussed in "Online Schools Without Internet: Struggle in Remote Hamlet of Central Sulawesi", the problem of information technology infrastructure often becomes a problem. Not only in Central Sulawesi or other remote areas in Indonesia, but in India, the country that gave birth to many technology entrepreneurs is experiencing the same problems.

Reuters reports that children in villages in the Maharashtra region cannot access the internet. Not only because of the bad grid but also because the electricity supply didn't touch them. To get around this condition, they applied a method called "Speaker Brother" and "Speaker Sister".

Through this method, students can follow lessons that have been previously recorded in an open area. The new school year in India is now being greeted with more enthusiasm, not as gloomy as it was before they discovered this method.

Speaker Brother and Speaker Sister have now been applied in six villages in the Maharashtra region. The Diganta Swaraj Foundation, the institute that develops this method, said Speaker Broter-Sister is expected to reach more than a thousand students who were previously closed for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An eleven year old student, Jyoti expressed her enthusiasm. "I love studying with Speaker Brother." This institution responds to all appreciations with plans to expand and develop methods in a measured manner going forward.

Brother-Sister speakers not only touch the students, they are able to maintain their independence as well. "Through Speaker Brother the students do not have to be guided by their families, (just) they are alone," said Head of the Diganta Swaraj Foundation, Shraddha Shringarpure.

"When the school is closed, my child usually wanders in the forest ... Speaker Brother has reached our village and now my son has started studying. I am happy. It gives me the joy that my son can now sing a song and tell a story," said Salah. one parent, Sangeeta Yele.