New Delhi: While the HRD ministry has directed educational institutions and students to make use of online platforms for studying during the lockdown, people residing in remote areas are struggling to do so because of poor Internet connectivity and lack of smartphones, and laptops.
Nearly, 10 per cent of IIT students are not equipped to access online classroom instructions from home, as per a report.
A survey by IIT-Kanpur revealed that 9.3 per cent of its students are unable to download the educational material sent by the institute.
According to a survey by the online platform Local Circles, around 43 per cent of learners do not possess resources like Internet connection, laptops, computers or smartphones which support online classes.
A Class 12 student from Noida’s Indraprastha Global School, Priyal Gautam expressed that it is harder to understand lessons online.
The student, as quoted by IE, said, “Everyday, the classes are being conducted via Zoom, for four to five hours, but a communication gap affects understanding. The videos get paused in the live feed due to server issues and by the time they resume, one has missed out on the live session. Besides, there is hardly any option to clear doubts.”
In case of younger students, the responsibility of teaching lies on the parents. Most of the schools are texting homework to the parents and consider it their responsibility to teach the children.
In some schools, the online classes are being conducted for nearly 4 to 5 hours without any break, which is also stressful for the students.
Delhi Parents Association President Aparajita G Gautam told IE, “In schools like RD Rajpal School, Dwarka, online classes are continuing for 5 to 6 hours without break, and there are lots of complaints from parents on rising issues of mental health among children. The parents’ association has advised to raise these issues with the school authority.”
Besides students and parents, even teachers are facing challenges in conducting online classes.
Indrasish Banerjee, a Calcutta University professor said, “When we start a live class, most students get connected, but after a certain period, they start leaving due to poor connectivity or communication gaps.”
The disrupted classes are making students impatient, he added.