M S Nazki
Early Times Report
Poonch, July 12: The government has said that the slow internet is not hindering students in receiving education through online mode, but that appears to be far from the truth.
As the clock struck 11 am, Waseem Akram Khan rushed to his room. He hurriedly placed his mobile phone on a pillow and clicked onto Zoom, the video-conference app, to join his school’s online classes school.
“I hope it connects instantly,” he said, holding a pen in one hand, sitting cross-legged. “Connecting,” the screen responded. A Class 9th student at a government school in Mendhar sub district, 13-year-old Waseem grew restive.
A few minutes later, he lost patience and rushed to another room, going round and round, holding the phone high in his hand, to try and connect to the “Zoom class”.
Amid the government-mandated lockdown in the twin districts, the school education department last few weeks asked schools to start online classes for students, apart from announcing a few other initiatives to keep students engaged in the studies. The Zoom meeting platform, despite the security concerns flagged by the Union home ministry, has emerged as the go-to portal for holding online classes in the whole country. But the slow-speed or 2G internet is playing spoiler. “This is my math class,” said Waseem. “I don’t want to miss it.” He, however, was left with no option but to wait.
More than 15 minutes later, he managed to connect to the class. “Waseem, did you solve the questions?” were the first words he heard from his teacher.“Sir, I couldn’t see or hear anything all this while. It (the app) was not working,” the student responded politely.
“What can I do now?
This is an everyday problem,” the teacher said, as his tone grew louder. There were seven other students connected to the class. The teachers asked them to recheck their answers before shifting focus on Waseem to help him solve the question. Suddenly, the screen on Waseem’s mobile phone turned blank again.
He burst into laughter. “Hun Kay Bani gaya (What happened to it now),” the student said, only to realize the problem the next moment. Same matters have happened with the the students of Balakote, Mankote, Harni ,Ghani, Balnoi, Tain, Sagra, Malik Pur of tehsil Mendhar and other places like Gulpure, Manjakote, in Rajouri District Salotri,Bandi Chachian etc.,of district Poonch.
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