BERA: Taking care of an elderly father who suffers from Parkinson's disease and a brother with special needs while having to conduct lessons from home, is definitely not an easy feat.

However, geography teacher Roslan Abd Razak, 37, from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Bera here refuses to give up.

He would start his day as early as 5.30 am during school days to settle his personal matters before proceeding with the home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) sessions at 8 am.

According to Roslan, his father Abd Razak Sahidan, 68, was diagnosed with the disease two years ago, thus limiting his ability to manage himself while his brother, Mohd Fitri, 33, is a person with disabilities of the mental category.

"If I am at school I can give full attention to the students while knowing that my mother (Azizan Che Lah, 66) is there to take care of my father and brother. The situation (now) is different because when I'm at home, they would expect me to help them when they call.

"As a solution, I will manage my father first every morning before going to the market to buy groceries and rushes home to prepare for classes in Google Meet," he said to Bernama when met at his house in Felda Rentam here, today.

Roslan, who has 11 years of experience as a teacher, is also suffering from an eyesight problem which causes blur visions since November last year, and his eyes would feel sore when looking at smartphone or laptop screens for a long time.

The problem had forced him to use a magnifying glass or ask the students' help to read the map, during the PdPR sessions.

"I am still under treatment and to reduce the pain I will try to finish the session half an hour earlier by giving excises for students to do.

"I'm glad that my students are very understanding. Despite facing various obstacles in adapting to the new norms, I'm also grateful because 34 out of 42 of my students scored an A for geography in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) 2020," he said.

While admitting that it was awkward at first to conduct online classes, Roslan now knows how to use various teaching applications such as Padlet, Jamboard, Pocket, Kahoot! and Quizizz after forcing himself to explore the best methods to teach his students.

He also planned his class schedule accordingly so that the longest syllabus will be taught earlier. This is to ensure that he managed to cover all chapters before the end of the school year.

"As of now, the attendance for my PdPR classes is around 80 to 90 per cent because sometimes students have internet or other problems at home. Normally, they will inform me prior to the session if they cannot join the class," he said.

To ensure that his students will not fall behind in their school lessons, Roslan would also upload the notes on Padlet in PowerPoint or PDF forms and give them ample time to complete their assignments at home.

-- BERNAMA