SHILLONG: Four organizations in the state have expressed their resentment before the State Education Minister, Lahkmen Rymbui over the way some educational institutions in Meghalaya have forced an inefficient system of online teaching on students in view of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The organizations – KSU, FKJGP, HNYF and RBYF in a letter to the minister have informed on the misadventures vis-à-vis online classes in the state.
The organizations have said that post lockdown many schools and colleges have been insisting on the need to go online as far as finishing the syllabus for the current academic session, some educational institutions are even forcing students and parents to comply with online classes.
The organisations have said many educational institutions send homework to students online and many Colleges are forcing students to submit their assignments online on a given date. They have alleged that some schools have even sent boycott notes to the students if parents do not pay the fees on time during this crisis period.
The organizations point out that Meghalaya as a state, even in normal situation does not have the proper infrastructure and adequate Internet connectivity for facilitating all-encompassing Smart Class teaching and learning process.
“In abnormal situations due to nationwide lockdown most teachers and students are relying on Smartphones as gadget to cover the syllabus of the current academic session, this is ridiculous, since Meghalaya cannot suddenly cope with online classes overnight as majority of the students do not have access to Smartphones”, the organizations said.
They added that internet connectivity in the state was in a bad shape especially in rural and semi-urbanl areas.
The organisations have demanded that whatever the case or no matter how far courses have been covered by various educational institutions in the whole period of Corona lockdown shall in no way be considered, as courses covered pending the regular classes through teachers-students interaction.
“What needs to be focused is the state of mental health of the students in this crisis, to teach them the art of survival, life skill learning and how to cope in this pandemic and not to pressure them with online tutorials. Moreover, our government is yet to train our teachers for conducting online classes”, the originations said.