THE CHALLENGES OF ONLINE EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN
Online education is a type of education in which the teacher/professor delivered lectures on the internet. In online education, students use their own computers through the internet, which is an easy way of learning (literally). If you are thinking of a class to be easier because you are taking it online, so this is your dream and dream remains a dream.
Currently, there are a lot of challenges of online education which increase the anxiety of students day by day. Online classes in Pakistan started because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The government of Pakistan closed all universities on March 15, which was extended up to August late, and in light of all these vacations, the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan started online classes.
Visibly it was a great step to save the crucial time of students but in reality, it is not. I support my above claim by referring to the challenges of online education. Majority of students are facing difficulties while taking online classes during this lockdown because the basic challenge for online classes is the availability of the internet which is not present everywhere. Only 36% of the Pakistani population uses the internet and Pakistan is ranked 121 on the basis of internet speed.
The major flaw is that everyone is not equally blessed with the internet, especially in remote areas like ex-FATA, AJK, South Punjab and Baluchistan, where students, especially girls, face many difficulties to travel for the sake of internet access. Besides this internet packages are now days too costly.
Another biggest challenge of online education, which a lot of students are facing is that most houses do not have laptops, mobile or computers which are essential for online education. It is a challenge for all, especially for the poor.
Even if students somehow manage the internet and laptop by lending them or in any other way, then our literacy rate is not that high to use them in a safe way. There is a lack of proper training, which is also challenging for online education. The majority of our population is not technological advanced. Moreover, teachers have no experience how to teach online.
Actually, online education is not a new concept but unfortunately in our country, the education sector is facing a crisis during this pandemic.
Classroom interaction is missing, face to face interaction makes things easy to understand and makes learning more fruitful. There is no chance of personality grooming in online classes. Online education is also a challenge for children because in school even it is difficult to control children.
In light of the above challenges, in my humble opinion, these online classes are waste of time. Literacy at the receiver and sending level, limited internet penetration, poverty to afford, morally degraded community (as women are facing harassment while delivering online services) lack of foreign investment in information and technology will be highly appreciated.
The writer studies at the Department of English and Applied Linguistics University of Peshawar.