COVID-19 lockdown: Students' community in Assam reacts to e-learning

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Many students are now learning through the internet due to the lockdown, however, the students in areas with no internet connectivity are not being able to get the benefits of online classes.

The Sentinel talked with a few students and representatives of student communities about what kind of results e-learning will provide the students.

President of Tezpur University Students' Council Jyotishpal Deka said, "To talk about online classes, there's always a difference between physical and online class. As, teachers use various medium like live conference, video and audio lecture, PowerPoint presentations etc., it's quite impossible for the students to attend the classes at one particular time due to several issues like internet connectivity. In such cases many students often miss the class. Moreover, there are students who have access to a smartphone but they can't afford a laptop. There some medium of online classes that can't be accessed in mobile phones. As lockdown was announced in the State in a very short notice so many students left their books and laptops. So problems have risen in carrying out the home assessment."

Rahul Chetry, General Secretary of Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students' Union said, "We can't say at once that all the students are getting benefit from online classes. Different individuals and NGOs have come forward to take responsibility of many poor students. Besides that we don't have internet and electricity in many remote areas. Lack of training also adds to the problem. Most of the students of Assam including teachers are not trained enough to smoothly maintain this system."

A PG student and general secretary of the Cotton University Students' Union Rahul Bordoloi said that as many students do not have access to laptops to do their assignments and projects, most of the students from far areas have failed to take the benefit. Bordoloi said, "We can't say that online classes are not fruitful, as it has helped a good percentage of students in carrying their studies even during the lockdown. However, the system lacks proper connectivity between teachers and students as the evaluation can't be measured. Moreover we have teachers who are not trained enough to follow this method in a proper way to lead us to fruitful result."

Parashar Kalita, a PG student of Gauhati University said that technology has turned out to be a mode that can bring productivity. He said, "Before lockdown we hardly used technology for something productive purpose like this. It's good that that now we are utilizing the gadgets in our hand for such purposes. Being a student of the Department of Communication and Journalism, I can say that our teachers are following every step with responsibility. We have already completed 100 classes and the students of our department are following their studies well."