Though colleges are set to log in to the online mode of instruction on June 1, several impediments remain for the much-vaunted reform.
While managements, bereft of technical support, are largely left to fend for themselves, the student community is worried that accessing five hours of live-streamed sessions a day could burn a hole in their pockets.
The crisis has presented the State with an opportunity to adopt web-based teaching techniques.
While the government has latched on to the chance, many feel its hasty implementation could jeopardise the teaching-learning process.
The endeavour comes a week after a survey by the Directorate of Collegiate Education found that over 30% of the student community in government colleges do not have access to the Internet. Factoring in a similar section in aided and unaided institutions, it is likely that a large cross-section will be left out.
The cost factor
Besides, many students are concerned that they will be required to shell out large sums for Internet data plans to access the sessions.
In the absence of a public-funded initiative to subsidise connectivity or any other feasible alternative, the financial burden is expected to discourage many from attending online classes.
On the other hand, many teachers claim that the government is yet to extend technical support for the initiative, despite assuring support through the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme, ICT Academy of Kerala, and other agencies.
“Since there are around 12,000 teachers in the government and aided sectors, we are bound to generate at least 30,000 hours of video content a day.
Besides a major boost in Internet bandwidth, colleges will require adequate servers to upload content and archive them.
Under the present circumstances, not many colleges are capable of handling that amount of data,” a teacher in a government college said.
Disrupted sessions
Several teething issues cropped up when colleges put the system on trial. With many web-conferencing applications streaming content free of charge only for certain duration, several sessions were disrupted.
U. Abdul Kalam, Principal of Iqbal College, Peringamala, said several students could not attend the classes owing to Internet connectivity issues at their native places. Dr. Kalam, who is also the State general secretary of the Kerala Private College Teachers’ Association, said while the teachers are willing to cooperate with the government initiative given the present crisis, they could persist with it only with technical support.
