Online Classes in Pakistan is a Big Question Mark

Covid-19 has literally wreaked havoc around the globe. It has affected every sphere of life, whether it’s business ,education or sports, etc. Among many things, it has also brought about a change in the general behavior — no gatherings, no handshakes, no socializing, etc. People have been confined inside their houses and with many asked to work from home.

With restrictions on large gatherings like marriages ,parties and all get-together, all educational institutions are also closed. The students whether from schools, colleges or universities ‘enjoyed’ the first couple of weeks of the forced vacations but then came to online classes.

A large number of educational institutions have started following the trend and asked their students to take online classes without realizing that the move cannot be applicable on all students.

There are many families who cannot afford a computer or a laptop; there are those who do have a smart phone but the father has to take it along with him to work or if the mobile set is at home they do not have the internet facility; and then there are people who still do not possess a smart phone. Most of the people who own a smart phone do not even know all of its features — the most they know is YouTube,Whats App and taking pictures. How can online classes be beneficial if it is not reaching out to all the students? How students can learn from this costly education system?

While it may sound obvious, technical problems are one of the main stumbling blocks of online training. Very often, there are compatibility issues (with operating systems, browsers or smartphones), the courses never get off the ground or the student doesn’t know how to continue. All this adds to their frustration and reduces their engagement and interest, the learning experience is disrupted and they will probably abandon the course.

And those students who belong to backward areas, how can they take their lectures? How can they meet up with their classmates who are taking online lectures?They don’t have internet facility in fact they don’t have proper service to Call or send SMS to anyone.

This is not a matter for 3 to 4 months . This is an ongoing problem which can never be solved because we did not give proper training of technology and skills to teachers and students.

It is not only the students or their parents who are facing problem with online classes. The move is also giving a lot of teachers a headache. Most school or college administrators have just called a meeting of the teachers and have asked them to teach their students online. A lot of teachers have been scratching their heads as they have no idea how to teach online. Then there are the same issues with teachers as mentioned above regarding the students and their parents. The idea of online classes for school students can only work if all of them possess the facilities at home. Even if a few of them don’t have such facility, then that would be unfair to them. With the corona-virus pandemic not likely to go away anytime soon, the schools will have to come up with another way to keep their students busy and involved in studies.

Afreen Yousaf.