Due to pandemic fallout, the Government has decided to go in for online classes in the School all over the Country. It is not known whether the online classes are giving the requisite results, as were thought of. The Indian education system has many imbalances between rural & urban, male & female, rich & poor, virtually challenged and the digital world. Though for the students, who had not been attending the classes, since, March, 2020 due to COVID-19 Pandemic was not studying at all at home. They were habituated to go to School & have classrooms studies. But, this system has something for them to study. However, neither the educational institutions nor its teachers have ample infrastructure and knowledge. Though it is revolutionized learning, but due to the above mentioned imbalances, it is not giving requisite results. There is an immensely colossal gap between public schools and private schools and those having access to the Computers. Afore deciding this online learning, it was understood and had the notion that the teachers first have the erudition of the digital world and having the Computers and software. But, in fact our country has astronomical differences in terms of the education system and structural imbalances.
There are economically backward people. There is deep connection between incapacitation and penuriousness. Most of the people lives in the rural areas and even in the urban areas do not have the access to laptops, keenly intellective phones and the digital world. This type of online classes is discrimination to immensely colossal segment of India’s students’ population. In most of the cases, there is either no smart phone or laptops or Computers available at home or even if, it is available then there is one perspicacious phone available in a house, which is being utilized by either Father or Mother and student’s study is dependent on its availability.
In case in a house there are 2-3 children, it signifies that there must be 4-5 astute phones or computers available at a house, which is not possible for such families to afford and now especially when people are boycotting Chinese products, there is scarcity of such instruments in the market place. On one hand, due to COVID-19, there is fallout in financials in a family; the cost of internet has incremented the encumbrance to the population. Today in this time of lockdown, online education may seem to be only feasible option to keep the nation’s education system going, but in an unequal society.
It is highly exclusive learning. It has with more inequalities than shaping the edification system. Most of the students were acclimated to sit in the classroom and clear their doubts on the spot from teachers and the edifiers during edifying the students have ocular perceiver to ocular perceiver contact is missing through this system. There used to be disciplined system through the classroom studies, which is now missing and the students are not disciplined through online study system.
On one hand, there are quandaries for the parents not having the keenly intellective phones or the computers, on other hand there is less connectivity of 4G connections. India ranked 130th rank for mobile internet speed and 71st for fine-tuned broadband speeds during March, 2020. Given such disparities in access to the cyber world how viable are online studies? Each day mobile internet speed is dropping and there is no Wi-Fi connection for each and every student.
In some components of the country due to security reasons, there is cutting of phones & internet accommodations and when it is recuperated for sometimes, it is slow at 2G connections and even at times the verbalized accommodations are snapped. Thus, it is arduous time for students and teachers to make utilization of online classes.
In most of cases not only students, but teachers are additionally facing quandaries with online classes. The teachers have the complaints that there is involution & interference of parents, which makes it impeccable arduous to exercise any liberation in class. There are cases where teachers feel that the students work is being done either by elder brother/sister or the parents. Consequently, it is very arduous for them to access the students’ facility to learn. There is no motivation by the teachers, which was the concept in classroom. It looks homogeneous to the students are having open book test in lieu of having off book test.
Though the students have access to teachers for 24 hours, but generate lot of pressure on the teachers. The encumbrance of studies and learning now shifted from teachers to the students and the self studies. The digital divide is conspicuous across class, gender, region or place of residence. Among the poorest 20{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} households, only 2.7{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} have access to a computer and 8.9{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} to internet facilities. In case of the top 20{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} households, the proportions are 27.6{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} and 50.5{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503}.
The difference is ostensible across states additionally. For example, the proportion of households with access to a computer varies from 4.6{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} in Bihar to 23.5{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} in Kerala and 35{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} in Delhi. The difference is starker in case of internet access.
In states like Delhi, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand, more than 40{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} households have access to internet. The proportion is less than 20{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} for Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
The gender divide in internet utilization is withal stark. As per the Internet and Mobile Sodality of India report, in 2019, while 67{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} men had access to internet, this figure was only at 33{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} for women. The disparity is more prominent in rural India, where the figures are 72{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} and 28{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} for men and women, respectively.
If the Government perpetuate online inculcation without obligatory auxiliary measures, the prevailing disparity in the virtual world could translate into widening teaching inequalities among learners.
Apart from access, digital inculcation additionally requires conventional and predictable internet connectivity. To fortify online work from home during this lockdown period, telecom operators and broadband accommodation providers like Vodafone, Jio and BSNL are offering facilities like supplemental data and free internet to their subscribers.
Would these offers authentically ascertain a sound transaction of online classes to students across the country?
A report by Quacquarelli Symonds on utilization of internet in India reveals that both the state and the private players have not yet accomplished assured connectivity to all subscribers. The survey shows that among respondents who utilize home broadband, over 3{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} face cable cuts, 53{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} face poor connectivity and 32{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} face signal issues. In case of mobile data, 40.2{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} face poor connectivity and 56.6{551c903f756d5bf12b7d58e2eb1e8b74af35058efa7a05d3e7b41e9147979503} face signal issues.
Sometimes, the lack of connectivity is not a technical glitch. In Jammu and Kashmir, for instance, students could not access online classes because a regime order restricted network connectivity to 2G in lieu of 4G.
Even if the rudimentary infrastructure was in place, a whole set of supplemental gaps are conspicuous.
There are some advantages additionally of online studies like it is convenient, as the studies for students are available for 24 hours in lieu of classroom studies, which were fine-tuned, it is flexible mode of studies. The studies are at home and the family is involved in the verbalized studies in online environment.
It is more individual attention, as some of the students are not comfortable asking questions in class because of their shy nature. However, they can ask questions to the Instructor online. It is the latest version of studies and genuine world skills. It has some financial benefits additionally, as the cost of travelling going to school by any mode is not there, the expenses of mess is also saved, as the students orally consumes at home. It is self disciplined mode of study and connect the students to the global world.
There are disadvantages additionally like it is more time consuming than on school classes. It is more facile to procrastinate. It requires time management, which is missing in the present world. It causes sense of isolation. It does not have an Instructor hounding you to stay on task. It requires more responsibility. In integration to all these disadvantages of avail of more internets it is diverting students mind to other games or unwanted sites. It affects eyes and the mental & psychological health.
It is more hazardous that isolation for students for not commixing up with the students in the classroom affects the physical health of the students. It is for parents too to visually examine the child/children about the syndrome symptoms, as exhorted by the medico for use & extortionate access to digital world.
It is not wastage of time for students that schools are not opening instead it is going in positive direction. Parents have optically canvassed that without online classes, children were slumbering tardy at night and arousing tardy and their total routine was transmuted, but due to online classes now, their routine will be fine, it is good that they will get work to keep diligent.
For teachers it is onerous as they have to be available for the students 24 hours a day and their personal life has been affected to a more preponderant extent.
In nutshell, more infrastructures are required for such type of studies. Though it is something is better than nothing, but online teaching under the present unforeseen, & arduous scenario, is applaudable effort. Lockdown has enabled teachers to adopt incipient techniques of teaching & facing incipient challenges. They are exposed to the interference of parents who unnecessarily make comments during the digital class & harass the teachers. The teachers who have acclimated to this incipient style of teaching at the cost of their personal lives are to be appreciated. Hopefully, when classroom teaching will become feasible in coming days, imperfections left of online teaching will be taken care of.