As the pandemic appears to be spreading all over the country, the feeble defense against COVID-19 shows as an uneven war where Pakistan can hardly have any proactive strategy to meet this unprecedented challenge. On the other hand, the developed nations with enormous resources are bringing hope and overpowering the existing fear by striving hard to combat this threat to human’s life. Certainly, our social production and distribution system have been found lacking in stepping towards valuable measures and facing grave consequences despite having marvelous systems and putting enumerable resources to lessen the impacts of this pandemic.
However, the anxiety rises when the broken healthcare system with paucity of resources shakes hand with massive inequities and inefficiencies. As of now, there is no certainty about how long it will take to conquer this pandemic which escalates fear in our society. If the scenario will get worse in few weeks, most likely the health care systems may be collapsed under the pressure of this disease as we have limited diagnostic facilities till now. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 will leave its mark on already gushing out economy for many years to come. This state of affairs indeed demand national unity and stability as-well-as collective wisdom to chalk out sensible measures to fight against this ongoing pandemic and rebuild country’s economy.
In this testing time, where people have quarantined themselves in their homes to maintain social distancing; there is one course of action to cheer as educational institutions have come out to play a significant part. Most of the universities have already commenced various online learning management systems in the name of social distance learning this approach ropes with the government’s policy to switch classes to online. Educational institutions around the globe with sudden closure of campuses continue to shift classes onto virtual lecture deliverance. Likewise in Pakistan, shifting on-campus classes to virtual ones to curtail the liabilities in education system appears to be an only solution to get rid out of this hysteria.
During the Universities shutdowns, the social interactions via digital learning happen to prove an effective apparatus. Attending online sessions seems to be convenient but reality is far different. Students suffer routinely disruptions while talking online sessions due to unstable internet connections and incompatible timeslots for online classes as they usually turn off their audios and videos to block out background’s noise in houses. But again, to preserve the health of students, the dedicated universities in Pakistan are striving hard to move all their teaching online and planning to execute the online operations smooth to cope up with the current state of affairs.
Thriving for distance learning facilitation, government has also initiated Taleemi Bundle Internet Package for students in collaboration with telecommunication companies and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan. The new induction of Taleemi Bundle Internet Package will prove itself a life saver for online leaning management systems and a true safeguard for remote learners as it will provide internet services at cheaper rates for students. This service will surely gear up the educational system for digital learning and effective online teaching and will ensure to provide better facilities to educational institutions to promote online learning management system.
Currently, this pandemic and its possible threats has brought us all to one platform, where we need to comprehend the pros and cons, fears and opportunities, weaknesses and strengths, incompetence and aptitude associated with the prevailing scenario. The catastrophe, which we are observing right now, has kicked us to experience this digitized learning system for the first time in our country. This is immensely required for long run response to this pandemic as no certainty has been recorded yet about its demolition. The rationale behind the whole argument is that every nation can turn this grave situation to a better opportunity. Innovation is at its peak these days, scientific research being encouraged, possibilities for human growth being gauged, space for incompetence getting squeezed and national unity being promoted. These dignified grounds would be a mere way to battle against the exponential spread of COVID-19.
The writer is currently a Lecturer in School of Media and Communication Studies at UMT Lahore