A school away from school keeps dreams alive for those busy with life's other tests

NEW DELHI: A student who is completely immobile and wouldn't have been able to go to school. Students who work part time to augment family incomes. Students who are pursuing other interests such as sports or culture. For all of them, the Delhi Model Virtual School (DMVS) is proving a boon. The school ensures that they get education even while they meet familial responsibilities or pursue their dreams.

A one-of-a-kind virtual school, DMVS is part of the Schools of Specialised Excellence started by Delhi government in 2022. Affiliated to the Delhi Board of School Education, the school follows the International Baccalaureate programme. The first batch of Class X students will appear for the board exams next year. Each class has around 30 students and there are 290 studying in total at present, all selected through a proctored online entrance exam.

Like a physical school, classes begin at 8.30am and go on till 11.30am, allowing the students the rest of the day to meet their obligations. Class X student Ahona Das, who lives in Bengaluru, told TOI, "I am in the first batch of students at DMVS. I am culturally active and now I am learning dance, which I could not do earlier as I had to attend eight hours of school."

Similarly, Shivanshu Pratap Jaiswal, a Class XI student with STEM as specialisation, said he too had time for other pursuits now. "I have enrolled in a library and am learning to swim at a sports stadium near my home. I aspire to become a doctor and the school also provides me with specific coaching for this," said Jaiswal, who lives with his mother and two siblings in West Patel Nagar, their home being a village in Lucknow, where his father farms the land. Asked why he decided to join DMVS and not a regular school, Jaiswal said, "The government school I was going to had no science teachers. Since I want to become a doctor, I can't rely on self-learning."

Three studios with two production rooms have been built at Shaheed Hemu Kalani Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Lajpat Nagar, from where live classes of DMVS are recorded and transmitted. SchoolNet is the knowledge partner and trained the teachers on digital tools and guided them on tailoring the course curriculum.

The teachers, drawn from Delhi government schools, have all unlearned their pedagogy and learnt new digital teaching methods and trained themselves to speak into the camera. They have been provided training in theatre programming, green chroma techniques, simulation, using Google Art and other skills.

Mayur Gola, social science teacher, joined DMVS last year. "Initially it was a challenge as the pattern was new and we had to use new tools," said Gola. "But what we now find interesting are the several tools that can be used to make studying interesting. When teaching history, for example, I can teach chronologies by using tools like Wordwall. We also use gamification to impart lessons."

After teaching mathematics at a government school for two decades, Jyotsna Ramani joined DMVS in 2022. "Teaching for so many years one gets into a rut and this came as an opportunity to come out of my comfort zone. DMVS has meant a lot of relearning, but I am glad about it," enthused Ramani.

With small classes and constant interaction, the students are more confident than when they started. "There is a boy from Bihar who was reluctant to switch on his screen because he would be sitting at a vegetable shop helping his father, but we encouraged him by telling him that it was great for him to be helping his parents," smiled Sushila Chawal, an English teacher who earlier taught at a Sector 7, Rohini, school for 18 years.

The students use WhatsApp to coordinate meetings, organise functions and work on projects. Hindi teacher Suman Sharma recalled how the students organised a Teachers' Day function, all the while keeping the event a secret from the teachers.

Virtual schools, also known as remote or online schools, have seen significant growth in popularity in recent years, particularly in West Asia. In the United States, there are 500 virtual kindergarten-to-12 schools that enrol around three lakh students.