Aurangabad:At a time when the student community is badly hit by COVID-19 pandemic and their studies are affected, the students of a Zilla Parishad-run school in a remote village in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra are learning the Japanese language.
Students of Gadiwat village, located 25 kilometres from Aurangabad city are learning Japanese and they have a fascination for robotics and technology. The village does not have access to good roads and other necessary infrastructure, but Internet connectivity has proven to be a boon for children studying at the local Zilla Parishad school.
While talking to reporters, District Education Officer (DEO) Suraj Prasad Jaiswal said the main aim of the initiative is to provide job-oriented education to students.
"Surprisingly, most of them said they were interested in robotics and technology and were keen to learn Japanese," Dadasaheb Navpute, a secondary teacher at the school, told media.
Despite having no proper course material and professional guidance for teaching Japanese, the school administration managed to gather information from videos and translation applications on the Internet, he said.
However, the school has now roped in Sunil Jogdeo, an Aurangabad-based language expert, who has been conducting Japanese classes for free.
Children are dedicated and eager to learn. It is amazing how much they have picked up in this short span," Jogdeo said.
Since every student does not have access to a smartphone for the online classes, the school has come up with the concept of 'vishay mitra' (subject friend), under which children who attend the sessions can teach their classmates.
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"Ever since the online classes with Jogdeo started in July, children have been speaking with each other in Japanese," school headmaster Padmakar Huljute said with delight. On learning about the initiative, Jogdeo approached the school with a plan to conduct hour-long evening classes virtually.
"Under this initiative, a person takes online classes of the language. Many teachers of the school have also learnt Japanese. The main aim is to provide job-oriented education to students. A lot of Japanese tourists visit Ajanta and Ellora caves in the district. If the students can speak Japanese, they can become guides," Jaiswal said.
The government-run school decided to launch a foreign language programme in September last year, under which students from Classes 4 to 8 were asked to choose a language they would like to learn.
Sueeksha, a class 8th student said, "We enjoy learning the Japanese language. We have completed level 1. We can now talk in Japanese. I want to go to Japan and learn robotics."
Amrita Rajesh, another student of class 6th said, "Japan is a technology-driven country. I want to go there and learn about technology so that I can do the same in India.
With agency inputs
