Irshad Hussain
“Our parents cannot afford to bring android phones for our education,” a student told The Kashmiriyat.
Jio, Airtel and all the other telecommunication companies have failed to provide feasible connectivity to the Gujar bakarwal community of Tehsil Keller, of Kashmir’s Shopian district. Locals said that they are being irked by the poor mobile networks.
The Gujar Bakarwal community of tehsil Keller, district Shopian has been severely affected due to online education, the students alleged since the government has started online education keeping in view the increasing cases of covid 19, in the second wave.
Choudhary Showkat, a social activist of Gujar bakarwaal community, told The Kashmiriyat that they cannot bring Android phones for online education, because most residents of Keller tehsil are living from hand to mouth.
“Besides it, the network of all telecommunication companies is extremely poor whether it’s Jio, Airtel or any other. Administration should have pondered twice before starting online mode of education, because not everyone can afford to have costly phones,” he said.
Zakir Hussain, a student of 11th class, said that he doesn’t know what is happening in online mode of education, as he doesn’t receive any messages, nor any material related to his classes.
Zakir added that, “We are only 8 kilometers away from Shopian, still the students of Gujar bakarwaal community are being neglected.”
“The rich can easily manage buying Android phones for education, but we cannot. Our students are sitting idle in the rooms, because they they don’t have Android phones, ” said Rizwan Ahmad, a BA student.
Throughout the country, schools and colleges have started classes on online mode so the students don’t miss out on education due to the pandemic. But, in Kashmir, this decision was quite contradictory since there was a ban on any sort of communication medium, necessary for security purposes, post the abrogation of Article 370. The student community has been affected at all levels. The students did not see their class rooms since the past two years, following abrogation of article 370 first, and now the deadly pandemic.
Another social activist told The Kashmiriyat, that there are many sections of the society which are living from hand to hand mouth, and can not afford to provide Android phones to their children. In this deadly pandemic, only those who can afford mobile phones can get education through the online mode, because the poor can not buy the mobile phones and the internet services for their kids.
Meanwhile, the administration had issued new circular about the online education for both the teachers and the students.
The circular reads: “In view of the prevailing COVID situation in JK, all Schools, Colleges, Technical education and Skill development institutes shall not require in person attendance of any member of the staff. The teaching staff shall conduct online classes only from their homes. “
But, a number of students contacted The Kashmiriyat and said that this circular is useless, adding that that most of them belonged to family of laborers.
“Is there any alternative left for those students who don’t have Android phones, cannot the administration provide us with phones, on which we can get online education? ” questioned the students.
The neglected community of Tehsil Keller, District Shopian and other students from downtrodden sections of society appealed to the administration, to either provide them with Android phones or to think of another alternatives for them, because they are suffering from the lack of education.