Tuesday 12, 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
During the mid of March last year when the pandemic of Covid-19 first made its presence in the country, Uttarakhand like other states closed down all the educational institutes in order to ensure safety of the students.
For the past one and half year, all educational institutes have gone online, so much so that in various colleges the technical practical exams were done in online mode. In such unprecedented times, the lack of regular classes, concerns over offline exams, missed syllabus, and regular network issues put the students under a lot of mental stress.
With the educational institutes slowly coming back to offline mode, The Pioneer talked with many students and inquired about their experiences.
An engineering student from Dehradun stated that her college collected online structures maintenance fees so the students were under the impression that their online practical exams would be fair and helpful. On the contrary, the university used the online softwares, which was not proctored and led the students to easily use unfair means. She added the faculty was not open to suggestions and also said, “The colleges were not utilizing the funds available which lead to the undermining of the practical exams for engineering students.”
A graduate student from a government university said, “There was a lot of confusion regarding the dates of the exams. Constant postponement occurred and there was confusion.’’
While most of the colleges eventually promoted the students, the students were not given timely updates about any decisions which led to a lot of confusion about examinations and their mode.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government of India had started an initiative called PM e-VIDYA on May 17, 2020, which contained helpful digital platforms where students could download e-textbooks, CBSE podcasts and others. While most of the students were not aware of this platform, others said that while they knew about it they had no knowledge of how to use it. A school student claimed, “During the lockdown, it was tough for me to buy textbooks, had I known about the DIKSHA platform I would have downloaded reliable e-textbooks.”
Many educational institutes of the state have started their offline classes again after a gap of a year and half. The students have been given the option to continue their classes online or rejoin offline classes. With growing concerns of an impending third wave of the pandemic, many hope that in the case of yet another phase of online classes, the universities, schools and institutes would be able to manage online education better and would learn from their past mistakes.
