Educational institutes turning to virtual classes amid virus outbreak

Islamabad: During corona-virus outbreak in the country, several universities and colleges have switched to online classes to prevent the time lapse of studies while students were confined in their homes adopting social distancing.

Institutes that were engaging their students in virtual classes through video calling included University of Lahore, Bahria University, National university of Modern Languages (NUML) and Punjab Group of Colleges among others.

Talking to APP, an English teacher, from Punjab Group of Colleges, Amir Iqbal said that the schedule for distanced classes is conveyed to students through social media groups of the institutes where students can also upload their assignments and ask queries from their assigned teachers. The decision to transition classes is part of an attempt at social distancing, the practice of limiting large gatherings and in-person contact to slow the transmission of the virus, called SARS-CoV-2.A BS-CS student from University of Lahore, Ahmad Ilyas told this agency, online classes were good idea to not fall behind the semester as he was spending lot of leisure time at his home.

“Attending these online classes actually helped me get through the isolated time that I have to spend at home. Now, At least I have something to do creatively while preparing and uploading my assignments on my university’s portal,” he added.

Another teacher Jameel Barvi, who has been taking online classes through Facebook live said that in these trying times it was important for us to keep it calm and go on with our lives as much possible as we can.

“Turning to digital assistance of distanced education was difficult but not impossible. We do not know how long this pandemic stays around so we have to have a useful out come from our time at homes,” he added.

On March 13, the National Security Committee decided to close all schools, colleges, universities and madrasahs throughout the country till April 5, 2020. “In a meeting of the National Security Committee presided over PM Imran Khan, it has been decided to close all educational institutions in the country till April 5. This includes all schools and universities, public and private, vocational institutions and madaris,” Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood tweeted.