With the academic year for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses for intermediate semesters set to begin from September 1 with online classes, a section of students are worried that they will be at a disadvantage.
Students and faculty members say that once classes begin, the ‘digital divide’ will be all the more stark. Access to digital infrastructure, Internet connectivity issues, and power disruptions are among the main concerns.
“I have paid my fees, but I may have to miss many classes as I use mobile data and a portable hotspot. Apart from that, I might not understand important concepts and the learning might not be effective,” a second year law student from the city said.
Another student said that he is under financial stress as he bought a laptop and took a high-speed Internet connection. “I am sure this is the problem many students from middle-class families face. We can somehow get access to such things. How will students in rural areas survive such things,” he asked.
Teachers, too, are concerned about how effective online classes will be. A teacher from a government college in Bengaluru said that he and his colleagues had to struggle to conduct classes for final year students owing to power disruptions and poor Internet connectivity on the college premises.
“In spite of our college being located in the heart of Bengaluru, we had to face a lot of connectivity issues. Just imagine the plight of students and teachers in rural areas. As the academic year for all intermediate semesters are slated to begin soon, there will be more load on the college’s Internet bandwidth,” he said.
To tackle some of these problems, K.R. Venugopal, Vice-Chancellor, Bangalore University, said that he had directed principals of all the colleges not to have continuous online classes.
“We understand the practical difficulties. Hence, online classes in colleges under our university will only be intermittently held,” he said.
He added that they have asked affiliated colleges to give emphasis to assignments and reading material so that students do not miss out on important concepts.
N. Narasimha Murthy, professor, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Bangalore Central University, said that limited access to academic resources will have an adverse impact on learning outcomes.
Many students and even teachers pointed out that the government are yet to issue guidelines on how to conduct the classes, the length of each session, etc. “Our college has not given us any details yet. We have been informed that we have to log on to the classes on September 1. However, they have not mentioned any timings or timetable,” said a student from a private college.
T.M. Manjunatha, president, Karnataka Government College Teachers’ Association (KGCTA), urged the State government to come up with clear guidelines or an SOP on starting online classes and reopening of colleges in October.
“They should take into consideration the fact that the number of COVID-19 cases in the State is rising daily,” he said.
‘Relieve teachers from COVID-19 duty’
While many degree college teachers are ready to teach students online, those from government colleges say that it will be difficult to juggle classes and COVID-19 duties. “Many teachers in government colleges have been posted on COVID-10 related duties including acting as nodal and booth-level officers. It would be difficult and impractical for them to teach as well, and they should be relieved from COVID-19 duties,” said Mr. Manjunatha.
