WHILE the whole country is under a lockdown, educational institutions in Sindh were the first to be closed by the provincial government on Feb 27. Since then, all public and private schools have been closed in Sindh.

The Sindh government has now announced all public and private schools in the province would remain closed till May 31 and this period would be considered summer vacations.

All government-run schools, too, are now closed, but private schools have been conducting so-called ‘online classes’. This is despite the Sindh governments orders that period from February to May should be considered summer vacations.

While apparently online teaching and classes seem a good idea, these ‘online classes’ are hardly serving any purpose. Teachers are usually posting some YouTube videos to be watched by students, while others give usual ‘assignments’. Teachers are not bothered when even those are not done by most students. This all is being done in the name of online teaching.

Now in the wake of a lockdown, no private school has any staff on duty and that includes teachers. This means there are no operational expenditures. Despite schools’ complete closure, private schools have been tricking parents by asking them to confirm their email and postal addresses on the pretext of keeping them in the loop about ‘online classroom’s activity’.

However, once an email and postal address is confirmed, schools send fee vouchers to them either by email, postal address or on school’s mobile phone application. These online classes are being conducted to justify the tuition fee. I wonder why, when this is a summer break, there are online classes. Considering the fact that there are no operational expenditures and teachers are at home too, asking for the fee is unfair.

The All Sindh Parents’ Association has rightly demanded of the Sindh government to direct all private schools to waive the fee for March, April and May. If schools feel they will face losses if this is done, they should be given subsidy from the relief package the prime minister recently announced.

I believe this is a rational suggestion in the present circumstances.

Jamshaid Ahmad
Karachi

(2)

I STUDY in one of the private schools in Quetta. My school started online classes two weeks ago. I have internet access, but I know half of my friends in class do not have this facility at their homes.

The quality of online education is poor and my teachers have been asked to teach online, although they do not want to. Most teachers don’t have any idea how to teach online. They just ask us to watch videos and listen to audio clips.

I recently received my school fee voucher and the school has charged the full fee, although the school is closed and we have summer break. I urge the government and authorities concerned to ask all private schools to stop online teaching and charge half fee.

Name withheld on request
Quetta

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2020