with bleak chances of schools reopening any time soon few government school teachers in bihar have adopted an innovative method these teachers have started conducting academic and extracurricular activities for students of classes v to x through facebook livespeaking to education times umakant kumar headmaster upgraded middle school khadihara urdu boy banka says that currently 42 teachers are taking classes on alternate daysthe team has prepared a timetable which is shared with students through various social media platforms the response is quite encouraging however internet penetration and access to digital device continue to be an issue among our students as the majority of them come from humble background and do not have a smartphone or laptop says kumar who believe that state governments intervention is needed to address the digital dividebesides limited infrastructure lack of awareness among parents is another issue some of the parents believe classes through facebook will not have much impact on students learning rather it will spoil them he says adding that out of around 700 enrolments only 10 of students are attending the classes regularlycatch up course through live classbefore lockdown this year bihar government had planned to conduct catchup course to address the learning gap in 2020 among class ii to x students currently we are conducting catchup course through these live classes says ruby kumari who teaches at a middle school in bounsi block of banka district rubys video of teaching multiples of nine by using fingers as a calculator went viral on the internetsome of our students are actively participating although most of them are grappling with lack of resources the government to shut physical classes until further notice adds rubyextracurricular activitiesother than regular academics they are also conducting extracurricular activities the move is aimed to keep them engaged develop their personality as well as to supplement the academic curriculum says shiv kumar teacher primary school arap vikram near patna who also calls for government assistance to make online teachinglearning accessible to everyonecoding cookery painting dance music itc and yoga are among other 11 activities that are being conducted for school students