F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Since the universities have announced to continue their educational activities online amid Coronavirus’ threat, a large number of students took to social media for expressing their displeasure over lack of access to internet facilities in remote areas and low quality education offered by the institutions contrary to the heavy fee charged, ultimately affecting their grades.
“Online classes system is flop and not effective. We request the government to make a new way or semester break as the students from remote areas are unable to access to the good internet which will affect their grades” a tweet of a student from International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) said.
“Online lectures, quizzes and assignments are not going to be much effective rather will affect our grades. We have paid heavy fee for quality and good education. The situation is not fruitful for opening educational institutions but out grades and understanding of lectures is also important”, another tweet said under the top trending social media campaign, “We Want Semester Break”.
It has been observed that the students in remote areas lack internet facility and are bound to travel to other places with the facility so that they can attend online lectures which is not safe in the present scenario. While the quality of online education (being experimented for the first time in this way) is not up to the mark as the teachers were not fully equipped with the required teaching material and prepared on how to teach the students online. “I am student of University of Management and Technology (UMT) from backward area of Chitral where I don’t have mobile network. I have to travel for a long to take online classes which is a difficult task”, Emad Baig said in a tweet.
“Online classes are nothing but another source to waste our time. Universities are just concerned with fee they are just completing credit hours but really don’t care about student’s grades,” Khadija Waseem and Umar Baloch said in their tweets. ”You are giving us average education and expect from us to become “Iqbal Key Shaheen”. The government has announced to close all educational institutions after which you are sending us fee vouchers”, Umair Pasha said in another tweet.
“The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth. Not everyone is blessed with gadgets and technology. Think about those who can’t afford it. Stop online classes. Who will be responsible of GPA of the students falling down due to online classes?, Hafsa Waseem and Khadija Waseem said in their separate tweets.
Talking to media, National Coordinator Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences Pakistan (IUCPSS), Murtaza Noor said definitely, it is for the first time experience of large scale alternative teaching for the students, faculty and university administration.
Universities are also facing problems due to complete lockdown in most of the cities even the concerned support staff is unable to reach the universities. “I think, in view of the issues, uniform policy should be adopted based on the experiences by the universities, faculty and students”, he observed.
At this critical time, the effective engagement of the students should be ensured for awareness and various charity activities keeping in view precautionary measures prescribed by the government authorities.
