Islamabad : The students across the country are enthusiastically gearing up to resume their online classes from tomorrow (Monday) after spending over two-weeks long winter vacations, despite challenges ahead in digital mode of learning including network disruptions, expensive packages and inaccessibility of internet.
The educational institutions were closed down by the government for the second time from November 26 till January 10 due to the second wave of COVID-19 while the students enjoyed winter vacations from December 25 till January 10. The educational institutions will again switch to the online mode of learning from Monday for the next few days as the government had decided to resume in-person learning in institutions from January 18 (subject to reviewing the COVID-19 situation again on January 14 in a meeting).
It seems that I have spent a long time at home and have not been to my school. “I am excited to resume my studies even if it will be online for a few days and feeling good to see my friends,” Adnan Amir, a student of Grade IV said. “It is difficult to engage me in home-based playing activities all the time to kill boredom. I hope the opening of schools will help us cover our syllabus and save from wastage of time further,” he said.
Shaista Khan, a mother of three children said she had been desperately waiting for the opening of the institutions as it was difficult to manage online classes of all my three children at a time when they were not able to even unmute speaker on gadgets and respond to the teacher’s questions themselves.
She said, “The government is acting responsibly regarding the opening of schools without compromising over the health of students which is a good gesture. But it should ensure strict compliance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of COVID after reopening of the institutions as a lapse in any measure can put lives of students at risk.”
Professor Tahir Mehmood, from a local college, said soon after the restarting of schools and colleges across the country, teachers would mostly sign off of their remote teaching, and focus will be shifted to live teaching which is welcoming.
However; precautionary measures should be adopted as the second phase of COVID-19 seemed to be more harmful.
Parents, teachers, and government should provide an integrated focus on the health and academics of the students to avoid mishaps, he suggested.
The decision of resuming the in-person learning process by opening educational institutions likely from January 18 announced recently received mixed reactions from the students on social media and remained under debate by many.
Some of the students at the higher education level were of the view that how the institutions can take their exams physically when they are taught online and their concepts were not clear.
While some parents were concerned about the health of their children and considering the opening of institutions as a big risk especially at a time when a new COVID-19 variant is being detected in patients.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government had announced that schools and educational institutions will reopen across the country in three phases.
The students of grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 will go to their schools and colleges from January 18 and their studies will resume while in the second phase, students of primary classes till grade 8 will return to schools from January 25. The universities and other higher education institutions will reopen from February 1 in the third and last phase. All these decisions were subject to review in another meeting on January 14.