Dumarthar village, Dumka, Jharkhand State, India - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of students studying in open air, teacher
2. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Sapan Kumar, school principal (partially overlaid with shots 3-4):
"In rural areas, online education is not available, as many students come from very poor families. If the children do not go to school, some parents may send them to work, while girls might have to marry early."
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3. Village, residents
4. Students studying in open air
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5. Students walking of house
6. Various of students studying in open air, blackboard
7. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Shailen Tudu, student (partially overlaid with shots 8-:
"After a meeting between parents and teachers, villagers are very supportive of the idea of making chalkboards on the walls. The study is well organized, and we study for two hours every morning from 8:00 to 10:00."
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8. Alphabets on wall
9. Various of students studying in open air
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10. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Asha Solon, student:
"To curb the spread of the virus, we keep social distancing and sat far apart from each other, and we wear masks and wash hands very often. I would write down problems that I cannot solve on the black board."
11. Various of students studying in open air, teachers
12. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) Sapan Kumar, school principal (ending with shots 13/14):
"We have been teaching students this way since 2020. Apart from that, I would teach students some living skills, like how to make chalks, how to make cushions with palm leaves, and how to make brooms, and other things they are interested in."
13. Various of students studying in open air, teachers
14. Students walking out from home to attend class
15. Students studying in open air
16. Village houses
17. Various of closed school
18. Buffalo

As schools were closed due to coronavirus since March, teachers in India's Jharkhand found a new way to impart education to students who do not have access to smartphones.

They created blackboards on the walls of students' houses to teach them while maintaining social distancing in view of coronavirus.

Sapan Kumar is the principal of a school in Dumka's Dumarthar village. His school has been closed since last March.

For rural students whose parents cannot afford smartphone, attending online course is impossible in villages with poor mobile connectivity.

"In rural areas, online education is not available, as many students come from very poor families. If the children do not go to school, some parents may send them to work, while girls might have to marry early," said Kumar.

In order not to interrupt their studies, Kumar came up with an idea -- turning walls of village houses into blackboards and teaching students in the open air.

The idea was welcomed by villagers, who painted dozens of blackboards on houses along a relative wide roads. They also built a high platform at the wall foot to serve as benches for students to sit on when attending classes.

"After a meeting between parents and teachers, villagers are very supportive of the idea of making chalkboards on the walls. The study is well organized, and we study for two hours every morning from 8:00 to 10:00," said Shailen Tudu, a student.

"To curb the spread of the virus, we keep social distancing and sat far apart from each other, and we wear masks and wash hands very often. I would write down problems that I cannot solve on the black board," said Asha Solon, a student.

Loudspeakers become an important tool for Kumar to teach students in the open air -- the practice that he has been doing for more than a year.

By doing so, students not only learned knowledge from textbooks, but also get many practical living skills.

"We have been teaching students this way since 2020. Apart from that, I would teach students some living skills, like how to make chalks, how to make cushions with palm leaves, and how to make brooms, and other things they are interested in," said Kumar.