BMC school teachers juggle station duty and e-classes

Teachers Akhtar Qureshi (checked shirt) and Atul Satpute verify vaccination certificates and identity proof documents at Ghatkopar station. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Atul Satpute, a primary teacher from a civic school in Ghatkopar, has shifted his online classes to evening. That's because he is busy at a BMC kiosk at a railway station to verify vaccination certificates to help citizens buy train passes. Satpute is among nearly 200 BMC school teachers who have been assigned dual duties under their disaster management responsibility as civic body staffers.

"I started my duty here on Wednesday. We were told that this will continue until the app is ready. But there is no end date given yet," said Satpute, claiming he had to suddenly tell his Std I students from Samrajya Nagar Hindi Medium BMC school on Tuesday that their online class would begin at 6 pm instead of 10 am.

‘We're ok with it'

"Earlier, I have also worked in the COVID war room where I took calls from patients when the second wave was at its peak. People required help for beds. Now, again, we are required to do this under our disaster management duty and we are okay with it," Satpute, adding that his students' parents support him in shifting online classes to the evening.

Earlier, mid-day had reported on the corporation deploying its teachers in COVID war rooms to attend to distressed patients and their relatives. Now, the teachers are verifying vaccine certificates of Mumbaikars with the help of QR codes.

Being a primary teacher, Satpute has to teach all subjects to his entire class. But there are some higher-class teachers for specific subjects who have kept their online classes on hold for now as their evening sessions are held only to clear doubts.

"Since this is going to be a duty for a few days, other teachers are completing their teaching so that I can take those extra classes later," said Akhtar Qureshi from Vikhroli Park Site BMC Urdu medium school. He does take an hour of online class daily in the evening to resolve doubts and teach concepts. "But I will have to hold revision till we are back to regular timings."

BMC's Acting Education Officer Raju Tadvi said, "A total of 185 teachers have been assigned for this duty under the Disaster Management Act. All these teachers are either managing their classes before duty or after duty. At individual school levels these arrangements are being done. This duty will continue for teachers until further order."

185
Number of teachers assigned the verification duty