Odisha Teacher’s Innovative Way To Take Test Of Students Not Having Smart Phones & Internet

Berhampur: A headmaster of a primary school in Ganjam district has come up with a novel method to keep track of the performance of the students without taking physical class or online study.

Surya Narayan Sahu, the headmaster of Deopatana Primary School, Mundamarai under Dharakote block has taken the help of cable TV operators, who have access to free channels, to help the students who cannot afford smart phones or do not have access to internet network.

As per the method, Surya prepares a set of questions and telecasts those on TV from the operation room of a cable operator. The students, who subscribe to the same cable operator, note down the questions from the TV screen at their homes and write their answers within the stipulated time given by the teacher.

After the test time is over, the students can sit in front of a wi-fi camera having microphone and mike facilities individually or in group and show their answer sheets. Surya then takes the screen shot of the answer sheets from his laptop which is connected to the cable operator feed.

Then Surya writes down the correct answers of the questions on his laptop with the special pen which is again transmitted to TV screens of the students to facilitate them for self-correction.

During the process, the students can ask any queries to Surya and listen to is clarification through the wi-fi camera which is operated through Power Bank. Both teacher and students can only speak and hear but cannot see each other through this system.

“We can supervise the progress of the students using web camera without any internet or online data consumption. We can utilise the cable TV channel for a maximum of time limit without any internet expenses also,” said Surya.

This is second such innovative idea of Surya in helping the students in their studies during COVID pandemic. In June, he came up with the idea of teaching through cable TV by using a low priced gadget costing Rs 1200-1500 and one android mobile phone for the teacher.

“We have to connect the gadget to the control room of a cable TV operator. When the teacher wants to teach, he has to just start the video camera of his android mobile phone and the students can see him teaching lessons on the TV screen in their respective houses absolutely free. The local cable TV operator can provide at least 20 free channels for this purpose. You can even connect the gadget with an android phone having YouTube for live streaming of virtual classes and it can be screened on TV offline,” said Surya.