Schools and colleges across Nepal are closed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Ministry of Education as well as the leaders of academic institutions, are finding new ways for evaluating and grading students.
And while the classes have resumed online as a new mode of teaching-learning, students are relying more on the internet to stay connected with the courses.
A grade 12 civil engineering student Prerana Subedi from Padma Secondary School shares her new routine.
“I prepare for my class keeping my syllabus and essential materials required for the class before the class starts and be sure that I have my internet connection and prepare an environment for me to study.“
Teachers and students are connected through single-screen access, and while the syllabus is the same, there are definitely new challenges. But Prerana’s experience depicts more on the brighter side.
“Online class runs differently from normal classes as it is good for individual students because the full focus is with you alone and no other students can disturb the class when the attention is only on you.“
Like Prerana, Reeya Shakya a student of Information Technology at Kathmandu University School of Sciences has similar perceptions but with some reservations.
“I would say it is convenient considering the situation we’re facing due to COVID-19 but if someone asks me to choose between online classes and normal classes, then I would surely choose normal classes.“
While most students find online classes convenient in some ways, they also find them difficult to communicate with the teachers like they used to do in the normal classes.
With some major challenges drawing much attention from teachers and parents, the quality of education now depends upon the access of resources of both teachers as well as for the students.
Saksham Bhattarai a development study student from National college finds the major challenges are the results of digital divide.
“Those who are inside the valley can easily access internet and those who aren’t in the valley they couldn’t connect to the internet so it is the main problem so online class is less effective than the normal classes.”
While digital divide is a thing. The technological barriers that cause distortion and noise are something that demotivates students in joining online classes. Reeya Shakya complains.
“The teachers who do not have a good internet voice are not so clear so we understand half of the part of what the teacher is saying and half of the part will just not be there.“
Despite these difficulties, educationists, teachers as well as many students believe that the pandemic like this, is also an opportunity to test technologies and narrow down the digital gap to truly decentralize education.
Dishebh Shrestha, a visiting faculty, who’s been taking online classes for 1 and half months at Kathmandu University School of Art says,
“I agree that different kinds of crisis does open up opportunities and also give way to more urgent need of solutions to overcome these challenges and I think technology when its created out of this greater need might be sped up quite a bit as compared to how it would have been otherwise, for example we can take the simple case of Google classrooms.“
Universities, schools and colleges have been through the virtual classes for more than ten weeks since the lockdown started and the efficiency of online classes is still in scrutiny.
Aishwarya Baidar for Radio KU.