A mobile phone whose display is not bigger than five inches was placed on stacked notebooks of different colours on the teacher’s brown table. Leaving the last two rows empty, students seated - some crossed their legs while others were on their heels – on the floors, while the front row students squeezed each other to get a glimpse of video played on the mobile phone.“In a class with 40 students, how else can we make the video playing in tiny mobile phone visible to everyone,” questioned T Arulanantham, a government schoolteacher, adding that they don’t have problem with audio as they had a speaker.“Some teachers who own a laptop or tablet, are utilizing it in the classrooms and rest of them are teaching with their mobile phones. Some teachers have spent their money and purchased speakers to at least make it audible to everyone,” he added.Another teacher from Pollachi block said he had started to teach students in group. “Playing the same video again and again I would go to each and every bench separately, so that the students could get a better view and understand what is happening in it,” he added.It is time consuming, but do we have any other option, he questioned, adding that if only the department could either provide smart class or distribute tablets or laptops to the schools, the real purpose of introducing video lessons could be achieved.Even though the students could see the videos back at home, real learning takes place only when it is discussed and learned along with fellow students, the teacher added.There are over 1,027 government schools in the district and only 50% of them have at least one smart class in their campus and tablets were distributed only to 295 government elementary schools including 237 government middle schools.“It is just not enough if the government initiates innovative methods, they should also ensure that students are benefitted without facing any difficulties,” said another teacher from Annaimalai block, who have been struggling with the video lessons as they do not have proper network in that region.When contacted, officials from the school education department said smart classes would be created in all government schools within a year and necessary steps has already been taken.

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