Ranjit Parihar
The students and teachers in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are finding it tough to kick start online classes for the new academic session as majority of Government school students who belong to poor economical background and living in rural belts of state are without any access to WhatsApp or even smartphones. The online education is also a distant dream for those who have no access to android phones as they are not able to download videos due to low 2G internet speed . Many teachers are also not even able to inform the students of online classes due to the lack of digital means.
Due to closure of Schools in view of COVID 19 crisis in Jammu and Kashmir Education department felt need to continue the studies of students by making use of Digital resources by compensating the academic loss to the students . Both the Directorate of Jammu and Kashmir School Education in this regard made special lectures recorded by subject experts which were made available through you tube and whatss app.
Following the directions of Director School Education issued vide circular No 12 DSEJ Dated 27.3.2020 regarding home assignment teachers had been directed to prepare subject wise notes and establish direct contact with students through various whatsapp groups. Majority of teaching fraternity are facing lot of difficulties in execution of this orders due to absence of digital gadgets with them and due to poor internet speed . Teachers said that they had to spent their entire day to track the students through their phone numbers that they had provided. Most of them don’t work now.
Some students have given numbers of their neighbours and relatives. Majority of students owing their economical condition show their inability of having Smart phone with Whatsapp facility .”Some students who have access to smartphones said they don’t have internet data packs. Moreover, many parents and children don’t know how to operate mobile applications like Zoom on which the online classes are available. On the other hand, many private schools in the city have already started online classes as students belonging to good socio-economic conditions have access to laptops and internet connection. However, despite attendance not being mandatory in private schools, connectivity remains an issue for the online classes.
Experts believe that the Government can provide connectivity to the students to incentivise online education. Experts in computer science, have also suggested that “The Government can provide data pack vouchers to the students to enhance connectivity. Moreover, the poor students can also be provided smart phones that are available on reasonable rates or subsidy as the Government can procure subsided smart phones in bulk. This will incentivise education for students in the long run as well.”
As educational institutions across the country are arranging interactive online classes to help students during the COVID-19 lockdown, students in Jammu and Kashmir are finding it tough to keep pace with their counterparts in other states due to low speed internet here ..
From Skype to WhatsApp and Zoom app, teachers and students are using all types of digital platforms across the country to save a precious academic year and continue with studies, albeit remotely. These measures are meant to ease the education gap being created due to the coronavirus pandemic but low internet speed here is main issue to deal with problem .
Majority of students and teachers are facing numerous problems when it comes to the teaching-learning process through online classes. Due to the slow internet speed, at times they are not able to connect with students as many students find it difficult to come online. Due to this, the students are also suffering as they are not able to conceptualize any topic clearly..
Teacher also face problem as syllabus in some subjects has been changed but books are not available to them .They said that they have been asked by school authorities to teach students the way they do in regular schools and for this, they are assigned a time slot. Due to slow internet, they are unable to give undisrupted online lectures to students. As they are already under lockdown, they don’t want students to suffer anymore. So the authorities should pay heed to concern of restoring 4G speed.
“On the other hand students living in cities are able to surf through videos which can help clear doubts more efficiently,” said one of the students. When teachers send us any assignment or link to visit, we feel like sticking to the screens of phones or laptops waiting long for a page to open or download any document. It is inversely affecting our eye sights and wasting our precious time as well”.
Majority of students haling from rural area feel that in prevailing circumstances of Lock down and poor internet speed the online classes system is not effectives and are requesting Government to provide better internet or a semester break as students from remote areas are unable to properly access the internet. It has been observed that students in remote areas lack internet facility and are forced to travel to places with the facility to attend online lectures which is not safe in the present scenario.
It may be noted here that the quality of online education, that is being experimented for the first time in history, in UT of J&K is not up to the mark as teachers are not fully equipped with the required teaching material and prepared on how to teach online.
The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth. Not everyone is blessed with gadgets and technology, our rural schools even do not have desk to sit on and students have to learn through free books provided by Government then where from they will get android phones. Before issuing such orders Government should know the ground reality. Jammu and Kashmir has been under partial lockdown since August 5, when the Centre revoked the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution. There has been a gradual ease of communication restrictions. However, high-speed 3G and 4G continue to be banned.
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