Father holds umbrella as daughter attends online class on the footpath amid heavy rains

A picture from Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka is doing rounds on social media in which a girl can be seen attending her online class while her father holds an umbrella over her head to protect her from the rain. 

The Ballaka village, where she hails from, lacks proper connectivity and its commonplace to see students struggling for a good network there. They often have to venture out of the village in order to attend classes. According to The Logical Indian, the girl and her father, Narayana, come to that place everyday at 4pm.

It highlights the plight of several students across the country for whom studying remotely is a huge challenge. Udit Shyam, a student from Dakshina Kannada, told India Today TV, “ I am pursuing my BA degree. We have online classes. During the coronavirus pandemic, 30-40 students come here and listen to class. In monsoon too, we come here at 9am and stay here till 1pm. Again  we come after lunch at 2pm. We come here because there is no network anywhere else. There’s BSNL but it’s too slow.” 

Children across the globe have been complaining about the lack of effectiveness of the online classes. Not only is this mode of teaching devoid of effective student- teacher and student-student interaction but also for a large chunk of students in our country arranging the basic logistics to attend the classes are a major roadblock.

Therefore, it’s highly important that as we open up our economy, we give great emphasis to last mile connectivity because it is key in this era of digitalisation.

Even in these trying times, the fact that so many children have not lost the zeal to learn and are walking that extra mile to make that possible for themselves fills us with immense hope for the future. 

(Written by Vrinda Garg)