New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) In a newly acquired daily ritual, students in Haryana's Jhamri village open their textbooks at the sight of the "teaching cart" that arrives near their homes, filling the vacuum left by closure of schools due to the lockdown and lack of digital infrastructure such as feeble internet connectivity.

To maintain social distancing, the students take notes from their homes as a teacher imparts lessons using the loudspeaker attached to the cart.

Also Read | Kerala | 225 New COVID-19 Cases Recorded in Past 24 Hours, Total 3,174 Patients Have Recovered from Disease So Far: Live News Breaking & Coronavirus Updates on July 5, 2020.

The innovative way to ensure that students catch up with the syllabus they have missed since classes were suspended has been initiated by Satyanarayan Sharma, who runs a school in the village in the state's Jhajjar district.

"The bigger issue is not the effect on students' learning levels but that they should not drop out,” Sharma told PTI.

Also Read | Mangaluru Landslide: Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa Announces an Ex-gratia of Rs 5 Lakh Each for Victims' Kin.

“I have arranged for a loudspeaker system on a cart. The teachers turn-wise go with the cart and park it at a feasible location and impart lessons from there. It cannot match up to classroom learning but will ensure some learning," he said.

Such carts are normally used for taking out wedding processions in villages.

Now converted into a 'teaching cart', it is parked at various locations decided by keeping in mind accessibility by the students, so that at a time at least a few of them living in the vicinity can hear the teacher who announces lessons while sitting inside it.

Such strange new ways of educating school students are not uncommon in the country's rural parts.

The lockdown induced by COVID-19 in March prompted schools and colleges to move to the virtual world for teaching and learning activities. But weak internet penetration has turned e-education into a distant dream for many children in the rural areas.

As per official statistics, there are over 35 crore students in the country. But it is not clear how many of them have access to digital devices and the internet.

Ghanshyambhai, a teacher in Janan village, Gujarat, has started using the public announcement system of the village panchayat to share stories, songs, guidelines for parents on how to deal with children during the lockdown, importance of exercising and much more.

"During this challenging time, we can't expect students to just grab their parents' smartphones and start attending classes,” he told PTI.

He said while it is not possible to explain complex subjects like mathematics through loudspeakers, the method is at least ensuring that learning is not totally disrupted.

"I also announce when I'll be at Panchayat Bhawan so students or parents who want to clear any doubts or to interact can see me there, while maintaining social distance," he added.

In Maharashtra's Bhadole village, teachers have identified students who have access to smartphones and have formed groups clubbing them with students without any access.

"It works if one among ten students has access to a phone and lives near the other students' homes," said Shano Devi, one of the teachers in the group.

The teachers send lessons on the phones of the parents who have phones. The other students note down the lessons from the phones of their friends' parents, complete assignments at their homes and send them back using the same device.

The teachers have directed students to not gather at once at the homes of those with phones but in slots to ensure social distancing, Devi said.

"Teachers have also pooled in money to get data recharges for parents who are enabling the group to study so they are not discouraged because of the expense," said Devi.

Experts say the digital divide in the country may turn online classes into an operational nightmare.

Anindit Roy Choudhary, director of programmes and policy impact, Save the Children (India), said India has a clear digital divide and rural areas are far beyond digital outreach.

"Education and learning are very clearly related to the environment the child is in. When a child is in school, a learning environment is created," he said, noting that many households either may not have a smartphone or children don't have access to digital devices.

"The phone is owned by the man of the house. A father or older brother may not hand over the phone to the child to learn. The problem is we are taking digitisation for granted but a certain group of children will be missed out," he said.

Choudhary said there is a need to build a campaign to bring back children in a learning environment .

"Even if schools are not operational, anganwadi centres can be functional in a multi-time way. Coronavirus is here to stay. We need to create opportunities for children to come into a learning environment where they can maintain physical distance, wear masks, have sanitised hands and learn," he said.

In many other parts of the country, teachers and parents are still scrambling to look for ways for students to continue their studies.

Imran Khan, a farmer in UP's Khair village, has started spending his evenings teaching his 12-year-old son.

With low internet accessibility, he has to go near the panchayat office where internet connectivity is better.

Khan, who has studied till class 10, said he downloads pdfs of various subjects and learns from them during the day to teach his son in the evenings.

"I want my son to become an engineer. With this pandemic I can't let his studies get affected," he said.

While Khan''s ordeal is not uncommon, the real question is how many parents in rural areas have the capacity to turn into teachers for their children.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)