This Ladakh School Is Focusing On Non-Academic Activities Due To Lack Of Internet

Druk Padma Karpo School, located in Ladakh’s Shey, has been famous for its unconventional ways of schooling. It served as an inspiration for Bollywood movie ‘3 Idiots’, since when it has been fondly famous as the Rancho school. Even in the lockdown days, the school is functioning the other way. Where most of the world has swiftly transitioned to online classes, Karpo school hasn’t. The reason is the lack of internet access in parts of the state.

"We cannot conduct proper online classes like being done in many parts of the country. Some of our students stay in very hilly terrains where there is no Internet or even calling facility at times, so whatever we are covering on classes through smartphones, we will repeat that once regular classroom teaching resumes, Therefore, we are focusing on non-academic activities more which students can do as per their own pace," school principal Mingur Agmo told PTI over a phone call.

The school has hence come up with assignments for students that are easy and can be done at their convenience. Most of which include activities that connect them to the roots of the country. Students have been asked to explore less popular local art, culture, food, learn the local language, and record learning through scrapbooks and essays. They have also been asked to come up with innovations that can help in the daily grind during and post-Coronavirus world. "Students have come up with different innovations like baskets which can be hanged outside the house for a newspaperman to drop in it to avoid direct contact, touch-free sanitiser dispensers, and more things,” informed school teacher Rajeev Nirup.

Nirup further added that they have also conducted an at-home fancy dress competition with the theme of ‘My Ladakh, My Culture.' “Students were asked to dress up in traditional dresses and share pictures with us whenever they have access to the internet. And the entries are still pouring in,” he informed.

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Isn’t it rightly said that “Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.”