Covid-19 and Educational Crisis in Pakistan
Being Muslims, we believe that the pandemics and Famines are the trials of Almighty Allah. It is obvious that the pandemics and famines come with many challenges with them and Fighting with them is not in control of man but there are some problems that are very important to solve and that’s why I want to draw your attention towards a serious problem, which is inevitable to solve.Universities Students are facing many difficulties due to Lockdown. The system introduced by Higher Education Commission (HEC) for online classes is a poor system that requires a very fast internet to run, but in many areas of Pakistan, the Internet’s facility is not so good, because of which many students are suffering from difficulties.
For a moment, even if we assume that online classes are necessary, but how can an accounting student get benefit from an online class? How can a math student learn math from online class? Therefore, the thing to think about is that if we want to continue with our online classes, we need to come up with something that works for everyone.
Read more: World Bank warns Pakistan falling into economic recession amid covid-19
The second largest issue is that all the Universities of Pakistan have demanded the complete fee. Universities fees includes a lot of additional charges, including electricity, water and other facilities but the point to be think that when universities are closed, then why those additional charges are demanded? This is completely unfair that a poor student has to manage his complete fee with the additional charges of internet.
Just Imagine that how can a Son or daughter of a daily wager manage his internet facility with his fee. We all know that every servant has lost his job due to lockdown, every human being has become unemployed, then from where should this university fee be paid? The matter has reached to compulsion and when it comes to compulsion then crime arises and when crime arises then societies deteriorate and if crime arises now then it will be the fault of this government and not of society.
I’m a current student of MPhil chemistry at a well reputed university of Pakistan, I think I can better fix the issues which the students are facing currently here in Pakistan. Our vice chancellor worked hard to establish the learning management system for online classes and there is no doubt in his tireless efforts. In fact, the problems in the implementation of online systems are universal in Pakistan. 4G technology is not distributed in the whole country equally, even in Chakwal district, which is just besides the capital territory, 4G signals are weaker. University fee is a major burden in this pandemic. Above all, teachers are not used to this methodology so the quality of education is also decreasing. It’s not healthier to stay before the screen for 3-5 hours continuously. The assignments and home work is also proving a burden because all the system is not synchronized according to a policy. When asked by HEC officials in Islamabad by the protesting students that have you designed any policy for the higher education in the pandemic, they said, it requires 90 days to make a national policy. Students were surprised, they again asked that you people have not prepared anything during last three months? They were not replied. To conclude this, I would like to put my suggestions to improve this online education system. Firstly 4G technology should be distributed throughout the country including rullar areas of Punjab, KPK, FATA, Balochistan, AJK and Gilgit BILTISTAN. Secondly, teachers should be trained properly for 1 or 2 weeks and they should be asked to come out of their comfort zones and traditional professionalism. Last but not the least, university fees must be lessened and their collection may be delayed too, so that the daily wagers and poor families can carry on their siblings’ education.