Amid the Covid-19 crisis and continued school closures, students are complaining about online education and learning which has been affected for the past three months now.

Ruhan Qadri, a 12th grader preparing for his board exams, from Srinagar, said the pandemic has affected and reshaped the education system and students are struggling to cope.

“For everyone’s pandemic safety, online classes are a better alternative than regular classrooms, but these classes are not productive due to slow internet speeds,” he said. he declares.

Irtiza, who is pursuing a degree in journalism, says virtual classes can’t match student exposure in real classrooms. “If 4G internet had been available, then the decision by education stakeholders to hold online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic would have been effective,” Irtiza said.

Many private schools following the closure are offering online education services using a number of popular free education tools and social media platforms.

From homework to lectures and study materials, principals have been busy making it work. However, school authorities face a number of challenges, with slow internet speed being the main one.

“Not everyone has fast internet at home. We have to rely on mobile internet mainly because not all students have broadband services available at home. Classes are slow, we continue to experiment from time to time but it doesn’t work as expected,” said a teacher working at a private school in Srinagar.

Students taking virtual classes over low-speed 2G internet mainly complain about slow downloading of files and study materials, buffering, low audio and video quality which hamper their learning process. online study.

Qadri, speaking about classrooms, said online classes cannot replace offline classes. “Virtual classrooms do not provide the necessary space for the resolution of doubts and the interaction between students and teachers. “
The 2G internet connection has made students and teachers think that offline lessons are better than virtual lessons.

On July 9, 2020, the administration of Jammu and Kashmir extended the ban on broadband internet in the union territory till July 29. The ban on 4G internet will end one year in August 2020.

According to Syed Shafiq Ahmad, a teacher at the college, “We cannot ignore the fact that online lessons have benefited us during this lockdown, but we must keep in mind that not all students have access to smartphones. and good internet”.

“Massive digitization would be needed to shift to online courses at the expense of offline courses. A high-speed internet connection would be one of the basic things,” he said.

Education sector in Kashmir is one of the worst blows of COVID-19. Online student classes started as soon as Kashmir entered its COVID-19 lockdown with 2G internet. But with the slow speed of internet, students prefer classrooms to those slow speed virtual classrooms on different platforms.
5A wonderful opportunity to study online during the lockdown which 9th grader Arbeen Pervaiz Shalla considers is at the same time a difficult situation for her as low-speed 2G internet hinders her study process.
While talking to Rising Kashmir, Shalla said, “We attend our online course on Whatsapp. Instead of interacting directly on video lesson apps like Zoom or Google Meet to dispel our doubts, we have to upload a 40-50MB video lecture on Whatsapp every day.
As they scrutinized the fate of their children, parents anticipated that things would return to normal and schools would reopen.

Jasia Lanker, mother of a 1st grader, is among parents who are unhappy with virtual classrooms.
“I have to stay with my daughter while she attends class. I have other daily chores to do while I’m with her,” she said.
Parents fear that their children will eventually develop a routine of staying isolated and not engaging in physical activities.

Shazia Makdoomi, the mother of a 7th grade student, said: “My children have become robots. They don’t even play outside in the garden anymore, I feel like the outside world doesn’t interest them anymore.