Online education. A concept of the corona age, giving this century the ultra-futuristic edge it needed. Now locked in the time capsule of digital media, recording analyzing, and counting every hour to every minute. A digital diary with endless information and data. In name of zoom and the internet,
In a fast-paced world, the world is changing rapidly but are we changing with it? Perhaps not. Perhaps someone so we cannot keep up with this at all.
Online education is a curveball in time. That renamed education. And as not only a witness but a part of this digital world. I see the problems behind the ultimate solution. In the online world we are nothing but IDs, roll no’s devoid of personalities. Empty avatars with no truth to our being. In a world, anyone can be anything and even pretend to be anything with ease. It’s what you project that you reflect.
Though this is a need for the post corona era. You cannot deny the reality of the pandemic. How it impacted life. Reshaped our realities. Most importantly why mankind is doing everything and anything. Reshaping the way they lived. For one reason only. To save their children, themselves, and their families. To protect them from the virus. The pandemic is the reality of our century now in front of our eyes. What we could do was accept it and be prepared. And hence we reshaped our education module. A zone dedicated to our children and future generations. To protect them. Keep them safe and educated we turned to zoom, Google classroom, Microsoft classroom, etc., and likewise when they were our salvation in digital code. The western world had found the ultimate solution.
But every coin has two sides and once flipped the eastern world was in tatters, except 1% of the people. Most to be confused. Wondering not of the online education. But how they would afford it. Most educational institutes then turned to a hybrid system of education. That is diving the groups in half and each attending on alternate days. But that was not as effective as we thought. The invisible enemy that is everywhere. Unseen was there among us. The cases were on a rise again. And then? We had to take a step back.
Turn back to a fully online world a safety net for us. Our educators and then we noticed a halt in the cases.
It’s the reality many are yet skeptical to accept. The reality is dark, cold, and confusing but acceptance is our answer.
The problems we faced are evident, undeniable, and need to be addressed. Not everyone can afford all the gargets, Laptops. Phones and wifi, in a poor country like Pakistan not everyone has gadgets that support these systems. Let alone proper internet, there are people everywhere, specifically in Pakistan. In the remote areas and villages. To the megacities. Yet some of these places don’t even have cell phone towers let alone internet.
But not just villages, megacities like Karachi, Lahore also suffer under this, there is no proper infrastructure of the city. My areas have no access to the internet and even if they do the internet is very bad with a very bad connection and countless errors. Resulting in hindering education rather than enabling it.
The issue of load shedding, a courtesy of KElectric cannot be ignored, or not mentioned. The main culprit. You have the internet, the wifi the phone but you cannot connect because the main element powering it, the electricity that will run your wifi device is not present. There is no power hence you cannot connect. And this issue is as real as day, people are missing classes, meetings, and fading as they aren’t available online. It's causing great loss and hardship.
People are investing in generators, ups, and other sustainable energy methods, which aren’t that fruitful when there is load shedding 12 hours a day. Students are falling behind in assignments, unable to submit them on time. And more. Most to all have frozen their semesters or pulled their children out of schools. Hoping for a day when education is physical again,
Adil,s case: Adil is a 7-year-old. His mother pulled him out of the school and has decided to home school him till the pandemic is over. This is what she had to mention “why did you cancel the admission? “Mother:” together with his father’s salary now half we cannot afford the fee. We will get him a new admission when physical education is back “
Will we ever see a world back to as it was or is this our new reality now? Only time will tell
Zahid.s case, Zahid is a student in a government university, he was in his 4th semester “ do you prefer online education?” Zahid reply “ no I had to freeze my semester. I did not have the internet or a laptop to continue working online. I couldn’t understand lectures especially as we had labs in our engineering courses. And applied physics. I could not understand it online. My friends had to freeze our semester. We hope we will resume next semester”
We understand how hard it has been for everyone. Unable to understand how to run with the world. But we have no choice. It is either this or nothing. We cannot risk the lives, this was an unexpected turn of events. Something out of control and humanity is doing its best to keep up. Survive as we always have,
Are there any solutions to online education a vogue concept in our society?
The government has introduced CMS campus management system. To help with the online education and support the campuses. It’s increasing the administrative efficiency of the campus on the national level. But how is it affecting students? It’s a program far away from the reach of those who cannot access it with many bugs. But we know management is working to perfect it.
Online we are far away from our teachers, for some students with disabilities online education is a dead end. They face a great problem with limited access and countless boundaries. For online you can understand words but not emotions and these gifted children only communicate through sounds or actions. They don’t know how to use the technology. eLearning is especially hard for those with disabilities.
Same for kids in kindergarten. They don’t even know what their world is. Hence most kindergartens are closed and education has come to halt for them. There is salvation if they are being homeschooled.
Online education is unaffordable for many. Not to mention the heavy price tag of the fee that still remains. Despite the truth that the school s are closed saving them thousands in bills with no use of resources. Yet the students are paying the full fee. On top of that, each student is expected to have their own laptop and phone. Such is not possible especially in an underdeveloped country like Pakistan. A poor country that cannot afford any of this.
As students often we are asked the impossible. Given projects beyond overreach. Often such challenges make us stronger, yet in the world of the pandemic. With all the shops closing at 6 and the world silent at night. We cannot in cooperate much except work on projects in writing. With even group meetings in question. The online world is endless projects and assignments met on deadlines.
It's constant pressure on everyone. in the physical world, we would leave behind our worries of the campus at the campus as we went home. Now they are everywhere with us. It’s a nonstop process with no limit set in time. A physiological pressure where we cannot detach ourselves as easily as we would if it were physical classes.
This is one side of the coin, what’s the other? Most of all institutions have called a meeting and asked their teachers to teach online. Leaving their staff scratching their heads. Despite training sessions. Perhaps it’s the very acceptance of this medium of education and examination. Not every teacher knows how to teach online and not everyone has all the facilities to project a lecture through the new digital world. We are not a digitally advanced country. Hence when asked to accommodate we are at a loss.
How will the government help?
This is the online era, a new age and we cannot deny the fact. As every world and system needs rulers. Our new online world does too. We are so disorganized as students and institutes for we do not have the rules laws or the system. Hence in distortion. A world without foundations is bound to collapse, and before the crash, we can stable ourselves by enabling ourselves.
The government should put the taxes o people and invest in technology. The investment in free wifi for the people. Access to internet and phone connections. Provision of equipment on registration through campuses. So every student can access the education. Provision of electricity in all areas so students do not miss their classes.
The campuses can make laws, rules, and a cyber-security and law making cell. Responsible for monitoring online education. Making laws. Keeping cyberbullies in check and implementing punishments. Exposing them to others so they learn their lesson. The government should make the online world safe for us. Introduce a new ministry dedicated to online education. A proper system that caters to problems of the students and teachers, and provides them with the facilities and equipment and scholarships on the proper investigation.
With our state by our side can we stand tall in this new world and keep up with the pace of the world.