COVID-19 and E-Learning in Jammu and Kashmir
By: Tahir Qureshi
Year 2020 would always be remembered in the annals of history as a year of pandemic Covid-19 which has derailed all walks of life across the globe. Like other countries of the world, India faces numerous challenges to combat this lethal virus. On the one hand medical, trade, banking, agriculture and industry all have been badly affected, whereas on the other hand the education system of the country has been badly disrupted. Education is required for the all round development of the learners, it brings the individual from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from innocence to experience. There is a famous Chinese proverb, “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.”
Education should be the top priority of any nation as it is associated with the career of those young people who have to lead it in future. In this regard the Constitution of India granted ‘Right to Education’ as a fundamental right to its citizens under article 21-A which states, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of 6 to 14 years” but during COVID-19 this right has been abbreviated. Development of any nation relies on the education of its citizens, the more educated citizens the more prosperous and developed a nation is. That is why Diogenes asserted, “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth”. Educated youth can design the better tomorrow of their respective nations. But unfortunately amid COVID-19, the young pursuers of education have been locked in their homes since March of this year.
The picture is bleaker in Jammu and Kashmir where the students always pay the heavy price for untimely disruptions in their studies. The UT has witnessed the closures of schools since August 2019 after the abrogation of article 370 and 35A. The internet services and all other communications in the UT were suspended and all the Govt. and private schools remained closed for months together. The schools falling under winter zones were affected more as these had to be shut for winter vacations for three more months. After the winter break, the students joined the schools hardly for a few days before Covid-19 knocked at their doors. This pandemic has disrupted elementary education more than higher education because young learners can learn only in classroom setting, with plethora of affection, compassion and motivation on the part of their tutors.
Moreover home schooling ceases children’s opportunity of social life and learning and school is the only platform where young learners’ skills develop utmost. Multiple skills are gained by students in school and their abilities for learning are excelled. School environment facilitates learners with classrooms, libraries, playgrounds and computer labs, which are required for their social upbringing. But the students belonging to Jammu and Kashmir UT have been deprived of all these amenities since August last year. Amid this pandemic, (MHRD) Ministry of Human Resource Development substituted online method of teaching instead of face to face interaction between the tutor and the learners which was prevalent since centuries. One of the purposes of imparting education is to inculcate moral values among the students which would be feasible only in classroom environment rather than online lectures. Students of the area are facing numerous challenges to adopt to this modern method of learning. So far this method seems little helpful for students, mainly of two reasons: low internet speed in the area and non availability of mobile phones to majority of students.
About 70% students of the UT reside in the remote areas and belong to families which cannot afford to avail android phones. Only 20 percent students of Government schools have linked to online classes which have been initiated by DSEJ (Director School Education Jammu) and DSEK (Director School Education Kashmir). Government has directed educational institutions to impart education through online lectures and webinars by using YouTube, Zoom and Google classes like apps. YouTube is a source of online teaching and its videos are streaming at only 240-pixel because of low internet speed and it help even those handful of privileged students. This so called modern e-learning has substituted the centuries old chalk-talk teaching method and it raises a question for the policy makers who introduced technology based learning in an area where the technology is scarce. With only 2G internet speed one cannot expect the accomplishment of online teaching.
Majority of people in the UT are struggling for their survival, they are still the chasers of basic needs of life: food, shelter and clothing. Daily earners even cannot afford two times meal for their families and this lockdown has compounded their miseries. Arranging online learning for their children is far from reality. Government should formulate such policies which could be applicable for majority and not for a handful of privileged persons. It would take time to streamline the teaching learning process in Jammu and Kashmir UT. Dropout rate may do up and those belonging to poor households would hardly resume their studies because their parents would be unable to pay their school fee and other charges. It would be a challenge for policy makers to make some student centric policies and devise methods than could help poor students to continue their studies. Mass promotion is not the permanent solution to this problem, rather it would lead to cease students’ interest in studies. In such an area where the problem of unemployment itself is not less than a plague, disruption of its education system for a period will be disastrous.
The writer hails from Surunkote, Poonch and is a government teacher. He can be reached at [email protected]
