‘The issue of shortage of devices and gadgets also has become a problem’.
Mangalore: Mrs Usha, whose children are studying in L.K.G and fifth grade says that she finds it hard to manage household chores, look after the online education of both her kids and prepare them for test etc. Since her kids are not old enough, she needs to ensure that they attend online classes and do their work seriously. She says online classes have become hectic for mothers like her and in few households, where there is more than one sibling, the issue of shortage of devices and gadgets also has become a problem. She says, because children fear the teacher, they pay more attention to classes when it is held offline. According to her, if teachers are vaccinated, we feel secure to send our children to school. She says that if schools reopen, children will adhere to Covid protocols like wearing masks since it has become a norm for the past two years. With online classes, she says that students often give excuse saying they’ve network issue and miss classes. Mrs Usha thinks that instead of starting vaccination for students above 12 , it should be made mandatory for students below 12 as they are not very mature and often tend to flout Covid protocols. She says online classes have impacted the routine of children. “When children had to go to schools, they would wake up at certain time and go to bed at certain time, eat breakfast in time etc,” she says
Jeanna who is in class 9 says that most of the time, schools do not practice any precautions strictly as they claim. For instance, minimizing students in classrooms, keeping a hand sanitizer in every class and keeping washrooms clean etc. She says that through online classes, most of the students like her have become tech savvy and learnt to do projects and ppt online. But on the flip side, she finds subjects like mathematics hard to comprehend. According to her, students above the age of 12 need to be vaccinated in order to reopen schools at the earliest. She says her younger brother who is in class 5 grade, feels shy to go to school and is not confident enough to speak in front of the teachers as it has been very long since he met his friends and interacted in classrooms. She thinks online classes have impacted the communication skills of younger children. She feels there are instances of students being addicted to their phones and on the pretext of online classes, using their phone for other purposes.
Shraddha Triveni, a student of MA in English from St. Aloysius College, says she is waiting for the college to be reopened. She says besides schools and colleges, everything else is open which implies that education is not prioritized in the country. “Schools are the last thing to be shut when a country is going through a national distress,” she says. In her perspective, online classes were effective for her because she had the privilege of having a good internet connection and gadgets at her disposal. She says she had classmates who didn’t have that privilege. She says that many of the students in her class, who initially applied for the course, dropped out due to family pressure.
“Online classes are effective only if everyone gets the opportunity,” she says. She says that students lack infrastructure like library, classrooms and the guidance of teachers during online classes. According to her, the government can appoint medical staff to a given number of colleges for immediate response to Covid cases or symptoms among the students and staff.She says that online classes have hampered the development of students as there is no room for discussion. In her perspective, the government should come up with a common software across the country for colleges and schools to conduct online classes as every college or department use different software. “If there are students and staff who have not been vaccinated, every educational institution should conduct vaccination drives,” she says.
She further adds that with the closing down of schools and colleges, we are moving towards a dangerous phase where human essential factors like love, sexuality and mutual respect will be brought to a standstill and replaced by technology. She says that since schools and colleges offer a safe place for students to explore their sexuality and now with the availability of advanced technology, we might become more and more isolated from our own species and subvert what is naturally inherited by us.
Rachel, her classmate says that colleges can do a combination of both online and offline classes as it would be safe for the studentsinitially. She says everyone in her class might have got atleast single dose of vaccination by now. She says she does not find online classes effective as many students either do not understand nor show interest the way they do during physical classes. She says that the lecture gets boring without seeing the face of the lecturerand many of them have network issues.
Mrs Pooja Salian, whose children are going to Mount Carmel School, says that she wants the classes to be conducted on alternate days and wants half day classes for students to begin with. She says she wants exams and assessment of students to happen in schools. Her daughter who is in class 9 will have physical classes from 15 September. She says most of the teachers are well-trained and took extra efforts in order to make students understand some concepts. She says that at least from grade 6 to 10, physical classes should begin. Mrs Pooja says that she does not think third wave will affect children as schools were closed for too long under this pretext. “And now since most of the parents and people are vaccinated, it is a lot safer,” she says.