Facing a financial crisis due to the pandemic-induced lockdown and the subsequent closing of coaching institutes, a delegation of more than 5000 private tutors in Dhanbad sought the deputy commissioner’s permission to take classes for senior students from Class IX onwards, following the social distancing norms.

The private tutors also demanded the waiver of coaching institute rent and remission of electricity charges for the lockdown period that began on March 20.

A memorandum containing a four-point charter of demand was submitted, where they also asked the government to make some schemes for their welfare.

The DC in turn assured them to look into their demands and take actions as per the rules.

“We are facing extreme penury and are on the brink of starvation. The idea of digital coaching in not very successful, as a majority of the students in rural areas are either devoid of smartphones, or have poor network and slow internet speed,” said Manoj Kumar a private tutor who was also part of the delegation.

“Digital classes are also not financially viable as it consumes around 4 GB data of teachers to conduct one class while the students attending the classes also lose 1 GB of their data” said another teacher Vikash Tewary, adding that the situation of teachers who were completely dependent on income from coaching classes, is pathetic.

Regarding other practical difficulties of conducting online classes, Suraj Verma, a private tutor from Manoram Nagar said, “Incoming calls during online classes on the mobile phones of students or their parents, causes disturbance. Furthermore, due to a financial crunch during the lockdown, students can’t spend too much on internet packages and thus opening the institutes is the only viable option”.

“We will strictly abide by the all social distancing norms during classes, as senior students can better understand the technicalities of social distancing norms” said private tutor Ravi Ranjan Kumar.

In a related development, a delegation of the Bank More Chamber of Commerce led by its president, Prabhat Surolia, also met DC Amit Kumar for permission to open garment, cosmetic and other shops, and also demanded a one-day special permission to open their shops and clear out goods that have spoilt due to the continuous lockdown.