Hyderabad: Following the temporary closure of schools owing to COVID-19, the State government put in place various online schooling facilities. However, children residing in the slums of the city were not, however, make use of the online tutoring sessions as most of them did not have access to the internet and accessories like smartphones or tablets. It is at this juncture, a team of six research students of Hyderabad Central University (HCU) have come forward to help the slum-dwelling students with their education.
Many students from the city's slums have dropped out of school during the lockdown period. In view of the situation across the country, ABVP, the student wing of Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) has given out a call to all its branches in colleges and Universities the country to provide teaching-support to students hailing from slum areas.
As part of the initiative, the team of students from HCU students decided to start teaching at a slum in the city.
For this, the team chose Gopan Palli area near the Hyderabad Central University. ABVP President and PhD Scholar Ajit Kumar inaugurated the ‘Basti-School’ a week ago at the Hanuman Temple in the premises. The research students volunteered to teach as there are not many students at the HCU campus due to COVID-19.
Initially, the Basti-School started off with ten students. Now the strength of the school has increased to 40. Children studying from Class I to Class X are among those who attend the Basti-School. The team teaches the students everything from English alphabets to multiplication tables in mathematics.
Though the student turn-out was not big in the beginning, the HCU scholars showed patience and taught the students who were present in the school. But later on, the popularity of the ‘Basti –School’ started increasing gradually. The researchers are planning to start another ‘Basti-school’ soon.
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