There is nothing in this world that is truly decided. Birds sometimes fall out of the sky and sometimes it snows in April. Everything is uncertain but nothing is ‘peculiar’. A similar air of uncertainty also looms over the students living in indigenous areas that are bound to take online classes to secure their so called educational ‘future’. Despite lacking proper internet facilities in their areas; these students are left in limbo, forced to go out to nearby cities to attend these classes. These universities are actually solicitous about whether a student has paid their tuition fee or not. This insatiable hunger for money through tuition fee is what’s keeping these half-hearted online lectures alive and stopping the administration from giving vacations.
Recently a student of HITEC University, Osama Ejaz, fell victim to this dejected virus where he went outside to get access to an internet connection just for these flawed online lectures. He risked the future of his life to propel his “academic future”. There are several similar cases occurring around the country where someone like this student is placing their lives on the line for an online system that is heavily flawed. It would have been a bargain if this online system itself was good but it is in fact riddled with flaws. The whole framework has chinks within its armor and the Achilles’ heel of all this is the halfhearted enthusiasm of not only the students but also the professors themselves. Their reluctance to teach in these dire times of a pandemic outbreak is evident from the lack of energy and motivation these teachers portray during these online lectures. Moreover, online classes involve an actual teacher running the class with deadlines for assignments and discussion questions that need to be posted. Since the online classroom is not made up of a room of “real” bodies, it is less likely for students to have an outside discussion surrounding the behavior or content of the teacher’s “lectures.” This opens up the possibility of online instructors using the virtual classroom to push political, religious or other views on students.
The failure of the system is one thing but the actual problem lies with those students that live in remote areas that had been students living in residency in the past. Once at home, they have no proper means of a solid internet connection. Even service providers have not reached various parts of the country and seemingly, hundreds of thousands of people lack a strong reliable internet source in these areas. Life there in these areas is very stagnant and one has to travel to a nearby city to actually avail a good internet connection. In these dark times when a pandemic is wreaking havoc and affecting millions of lives in our country; is it fine for a youngster to leave his house in an area where there might be hardly any proper hospitals to cater to a number of patients?
These are the places where health facilities are basic and substandard at best and not at all capable of combatting a disease that even the most advance countries are having recondite knowledge for finding a definitive cure. It is rather baffling when the words ‘panacea’ or a ‘cure-all’ come to mind – to think that even superpowers can succumb to a virus. Rather than asking ourselves that if we are correct, it is far more realistic for university managements to think about how they are mistaken. We have been living in a world where the desire to be successful has brainwashed us to meet societal expectations. The students often living in these places, often come from very humble backgrounds, where many such students actually study at various universities on scholarships and grants with their families not having the resources to pay their tuition fees. As a result, many of these students are very hardworking, diligent and extremely cautious about having a bright future. For such students, education is their only weapon to help them fight the darkness in this world but lately, various university managements are converting this weapon into a double-edged sword, inflicting damage to the user itself. To go out in these circumstances is very suicidal and lately there have been reports sprouting everywhere that various students have also been beaten up by the police as they were trying to go outside in search of a good internet connection to the nearest city.
It was not a surprise when “We Want Semester Break” became the number one trend in Pakistan on the 25th of March. This does not come as a coincidence that the students around the country are tired of their tyrannical university managements. The very reason that this became the number one trend in Pakistan, was the fact that these students truly understood the plight of those that they were having a hard time to attend these classes while placing their health on the line. Thus if it can snow in April, when the chances of snowing are almost zero; can the university managements try to realize the difficulties of such students and give the students semester break in place of these half-hearted online classes? Can the university managements let it be snow in April? These are some questions that these universities need to ponder over and think rationally and try not to be stubborn in such gloomy times. For now the students can try to be optimistic that someone might reach them out and let it snow in April.