For Chandigarh students, online classes off to a wobbly start

Lack of curriculum and poor internet connection are proving to be the biggest hurdle in virtual classrooms

Vineet Sharma, a student in a private school in the city, just began his online non-medical classes for class 11 on Monday. The new experience for him is replete with uncertainty and disorder amid jumping from one online tutorial to another for three main subjects—Physics, Maths and Chemistry. A discouraged Sharma said he was unable to grasp anything.

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“Today was the fourth day of my online class, but I am unable to understand the concepts they teach. Many times, my teacher has connectivity issues while my network is not great either. It’s chaotic and confusing,” he said.

Educational institutions as well as students are still in the process finding their way around the new platform of teaching. Online classes in the tricity are facing snags due to lack of preparedness and proper infrastructure. Almost all city colleges, Panjab University and Chandigarh’s private schools have started online classrooms, but students say the teaching needs to be more methodical and systematic.

In the absence of curriculum and methodology, these virtual classrooms are not up to the mark, with insubstantial infrastructure and poor internet connectivity further contribute to its inefficacy.

“It is treated as just a stop-gap mechanism, which may be why it isn’t giving the desired result. In our school, not every teacher has to take a class. We have just asked them to revise difficult subjects so students don’t waste this time they have on their hands,” said a principal of a private school in UT.

These online classes are being conducted via audio-visual mode through mobile apps like Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, YouTube, Google Classroom and WhatsApp. Many teachers who are unable to use these means are sharing self-created study material in the form of PDFs, documents and PowerPoint presentations, e-mail and digital platforms such as Swayam NPTEl, e-PG Pathshala, eGyankosh and MOOC.org.

Sunita Kumari, a student at Post Graduate Government College, Sector 46, said, “When I left for home, I forgot to take my books in the PG facility. Now, I am worried that if we have to take exams when college reopens, what will I do?”

“The only hope is online classes, but the study matter is insufficient”, she added.

Elaborating on the issues that students are facing, Priya Chadda of Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College, said, “Some students staying in the hostel had to leave the city in a hurry, and so left behind many of their books. While others living in remote areas are finding it difficult to use the online (LX) module due to slow internet connection.”

ATTENDANCE NOT MANDATORY

Ajay Kumar, a teacher at PGGC for Girls in Sector 11, said, “Currently, we can’t have a categorical check on attendance because of the digital divide as well as the strength of the internet connection for e-learning.”

Pooja Garg, a teacher at PGGC Sector 46, said attendance was not compulsory as not all students had access to the internet. “And yet, the response is pretty good. The only problem is that all students don’t have a connection,” she said.

Meanwhile, there are no online classes for government school students, said Alka Mehta, district education officer (DEO).