Online Classes during lockdown in Bengal

Anwesha Sarkar

Dalit students who come to universities do not walk an easy path, not to the on-campus classroom, not to the online classroom.

College and university classes had been stopped in Bengal, as in the rest of India, at the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown. However, online classes were started soon after to resume studies. In this context, here are a few thoughts from Bengal:

Teacher, Subrata Paati’s work station is housed on a ramp on top of a tree. That is where he takes his classes. Network is weak in this remote village in Bankura district. Signal can only be accessed from the highest branches of the tree. This is how he has been taking classes from nine in the morning to six in the evening.

The virtual classroom has taken students and teachers to a new realm, that of the personal. Teachers are taking classes against the backdrop of their best looking corners in their bedrooms or drawing rooms. 

Internet speed is a big problem for students in suburban areas, villages and small towns. Everyone cannot afford an unlimited data pack or Wi-Fi connection. And it isn’t possible to arrange for one during the lockdown. All students do not have good quality phones. Phones heat up within the hour and switch off, or run out of charge. Recently, University of Hyderabad prepared a report, in which almost 2500 students participated. 90% of the respondents own a mobile phone and only 37 % have access to online classes.

Post graduate recipients of the Kanyashree scheme in Bengal have told that “the scholarship money is not enough to afford a gadget.” Following the sudden announcement of the lockdown those who had to leave their hostels and messes for home have had to leave behind hard copies of their study material. As a result, even if they are able to access online classes, studying for these has become difficult. Students who are able to attend these classes, are doing so entirely on their own means and expenses. Some are also loaning devices from others.

What are the requirements and rules to attend an online class? Teachers take periodise their classes according to the usual routine. This means that college-university students have to be attend classes for almost four hours, which further entails that they need as many hours of internet to be present before their devices. At the least, attendees will need a place to sit, a peaceful space where they will comfortable and no one will disturb them.

It’s not possible for those who don’t have their own rooms, or live in small houses to create such a space for themselves. As a result, online classes present a picture of shame, frustration, reservation and discomfort. For instance, let me tell you about a college student who lives in a rented accommodation in the congested slum area of Entally in metropolitan Kolkata. Including an ailing grandmother, two brothers and her parents, they are a family of six living in 12 by 14 feet one room mess apartment. They share a common toilet with five other neighbors in similar living conditions. Social distancing in such circumstances is nothing but a joke. One way she can attend classes with some modicum of comfort is of the men step out during the day. And that is how she manages to make it to four hours of online class every day.

Network is the main problem for students in rural and suburban areas; they haven’t been able to take regular classes from before the Amphan cyclone itself. A woman student living in the suburbs of Diamond Harbour has to step out of home to attend her classes under a Eucalyptus tree because that is where network is the strongest. Most have to turn off their videos for better connectivity and have to settle for the just listening to the teacher’s voice. Teachers can’t see the faces of their most of their students. Often, they have to turn off their audio so that the noises of everyday domestic life around them does not interfere with their class. Weak internet connectivity cuts off voices and teachers continue with their one-aided lectures. As a result, the possibilities of an interactive class are practically nil.

Although most students tried to participate in the infrastructures of online classes in the beginning, the numbers have gradually dwindled. All students do not have their own rooms, many do not live in pukka houses, some have to manage studies and household chores, others are newly married or new mothers; everyone does not belong to the same socio-economic and cultural background. Online classes have added to the already existing feelings of vulnerability among students.

In an essay published with the Economic & Political Weekly, academician Soumyajit Bhattacharya has pointed out that the lockdown has been more unjust for women students and their families. Women continue to do the bulk of domestic work at their homes, and the lockdown has multiplied this burden. They manage their own silently and through much secrecy. Many teachers and administrative decision-makers in universities are likely to ignore these domestic circumstances because they have no understanding of gender-specific differences. At the same time, the West Bengal State Women’s Commission has reported that domestic violence has exponentially increased during the lockdown.

Kerala’s 10th-class student Devika committed suicide because she did not have the means to attend online classes. This incident has largely raised the issues of fundamental rights to education and the disastrous effects of discrimination in online education. Alongside, discussions have started about the need to pay special attention to the mental health of students. Higher education policies are meant to ensure that all students, especially those from marginalized backgrounds are able to access the opportunities of higher education. But the circumstances of the Corona pandemic have not allowed for the infrastructures of online education to be set up judiciously. However, we have seen how 72000 LED screens were installed across rural areas so people can watch and listen to Amit Shah’s speech.

In the coming months, online classes are being seen as an alternative to regular classes given the circumstances of the Corona contagion. However, our public education system needs to be more sensitive and responsible towards making the online education infrastructure more accessible. Otherwise the rate of student drop outs will increase drastically. Opportunities to access online libraries and journals must be created. Both students and teachers should be able to access information about how to use the necessary technology for online classes. Adequate facilities must be developed for differently-able students.

Those who are compelled to online classes are also learning about its potentials-good and bad. In the initial days of the lockdown, a number of Delhi University teachers expressed complaints, published on the duoexpress.in website, about outsiders who enter virtual classrooms and abuse the faculty and send obscene material. Many women teachers have talked on facebook live discussions about how their and their women students’ phone numbers are being made public. They are primarily feeling a lack of safety. Students have almost no means to complain about sexual abuse, cyber-bullying, misbehavior, harassment and abuse of their right to freedom of speech in the realm of online classes. And we don’t know how active those university forums and organizations that usually address these issues have been during the lockdown. If online education has to become the norm, then students have to be made aware of how their off-campus rights are being violated. And in the context of higher education, student organizations need to take in to consideration the realities of gender and caste- based discrimination that has been made worse by the lockdown.

If we look at the possibilities of online classes, then they can disrupt the space-time notions associated with regular classes. Students of 25 universities in the United States of America have filed cases, demanding partial reimbursement of their tuition and campus fees, given that off-campus online classes are more than fulfilling their on-campus educational needs. They want to be compensated for the ‘additional’ on-campus facilities that they are not receiving at the moment.

The privatization of education and the internet-based education may as well become an important aspect of the infrastructure of education in the near future. The abilities and skills to take an online class may become a determining factor in the employment of teachers. Does our country have the necessary conditions for virtual education that is not discriminatory? Do we have to rethink the aspirations, expectations, discipline and codes of conduct for both teachers and students?

Teachers and academicians are known to use virtual facilities to connect with universities and academia across the world. Yet, this does not stop them from opposing online education for rural students. The stalling of the entire academic year can become a reason to destroy the dreams of many. The 80 day lockdown has pushed in to starvation the working classes of our country. This is the reality of battling against both the pandemic and hunger. At the same time, the unplanned lockdown has pushed millions of migrant workers in to great misery. The psychological and material realities of students from such families have been made more precarious. Those who come from poor economic backgrounds do not get a second chance to get an entry in to higher education and to universities. The circumstances before and after the lockdown will not remain the same. Dalit students who come to universities do not walk an easy path, not to the on-campus classroom, not to the online classroom. As of now, the realities of discrimination are there on both sides of online education; for those of us who are not taking classes, and for those of us who continue to take classes for the sake of our respectability, our salaries and to sustain an academic environment. 

Anwesha Sarkar is a resource person at the Women’s Studies Department at the Diamond Harbour Women’s University, West Bengal. Her research interest include gender studies, dalit studies and gastronomic cultures. Write to her at [email protected]