Public universities are not ready to take online classes as they lack infrastructural and technological support and orientation, reveals a study of University Grants Commission.
UGC sent their findings to the education ministry at the beginning of June mentioning that the public universities including the highest seat of technological education are unready to go online after conducting surveys on 19000 students and 7000 teachers for two months.
The findings of this survey were twofold —financial and logistical problems.
The survey unearthed that there is a ‘digital divide’ existing between the students coming from various socio-economical spectrum to the public universities of Bangladesh. Some students have fancy smartphones and expensive laptops while diametrically many do not have even suitable device for online classes. Moreover, many students left for their ancestral homes back in remote villages since the lockdown began. So poor network is also a big barrier to such tech savvy educational ventures, on the one hand.
While on the other, an average online class may take at least 300 MB. So, if students have to attend 3-4 classes per day, the internet cost would be impossible to bear for most of them.
Anton Chakma, a student of the Department of Japanese Studies at DU, left for his village which is in a remote area at Rangamati after residential halls were evacuated. It has been almost impossible for him to keep in touch with friends as mobile network in his locality is mostly unavailable.
According to his friend Kazi Rakib, who is also a second-year student in the Department of Law, the 4th June was the last time they had any sort of communications with him. Anton had to climb up a hill just to receive a single call from his friend. Even Rakib lives in a remote village of Narsingdi where the mobile network is inappropriate for participating in online classes. He claimed sarcastically that unless he starts staying permanently on the branch of the tallest tree in his area, it would be impossible for him to get network suitable for attending such classes.
Moreover, he said he does not have the luxury to use a laptop at this moment and the configuration of his mobile phone is not good enough for him to join online classes.
Considering these facts, four leading public Universities under ordinance 1973, Dhaka University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Jahangirnagar University and Chittagong University initially declined to take online classes during the pandemic.
While talking to The Business Post, the newly-appointed pro-VC of DU Prof Maksud Kamal accepted that the infrastructure to take online classes didn’t improve significantly, the university now believes that the students have gained the mental strength of facing the new reality of living through the pandemic. He said the university has conducted surveys to know which students need logistical support to conduct online classes and the university would be considerate about these scenarios.
When asked about the mandatory attendance rules, Prof Maksud Kamal replied even though he expects a majority of attendance in the classes, the university would be considerate about the pandemic situation.
He also said no decisions have yet been taken about how the exams would be designed or if they would be conducted at all in the first place.
The Pro-VC also mentioned that the main reason the university has decided to take online classes is to reduce the gap that has been created between the students and the teachers and to bring the students back to the reading table so that they do not feel like a fish out of water once the classes start at a fully-fledged.
The student organizations too had been very vocal about online classes.
While talking to the Business Post, Anik Roy, the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Student Union central committee said that the universities should not exploit the already vulnerable middle class and lower middle-class students by imposing huge costs of mobile data on them in the name of taking online classes. The authorities should also consider the mental health of the students who are fighting a global pandemic and provide them with counselling.
According to him, even if the university decides to go for online classes, it should be optional, barring mandatory attendance, regular assignments and exams.
But since the coronavirus pandemic started, around 1.2 million students in Bangladesh and 1.59 billion students worldwide are going through a study gap. UNESCO has called this statuesque an “unprecedented education emergency.”
