Students without smartphones: Uniersities told to ready report

Gurgaon: With the department of higher education deliberating on expanding the scope and reachability of digital education, all government colleges and universities in the state have been asked to prepare a database of the students with or without access to smartphones or laptops.
The department has directed the institutions to prepare a detailed database of all the students with smartphones/laptops to access digital lessons. All the colleges are required to submit the data latest by July 9. “As we all know that the classes have been suspended in all colleges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, there’s a scope for continuing the classes through digital education in the post Covid scenario. Therefore, in this context the department is of the view that a mechanism should be devised which may provide for a smooth operating of digital learning,” read the order released earlier this week.
The department has also provided a template that is to be used while creating the database. “We have been asked to prepare the data of all such students who have access to smartphones and laptops. This will not only help with the recorded data of how many students can access online lectures but also give a clear picture of how many students might be getting excluded. Mostly girl students from rural and semi-urban areas might be without access to smartphones. This would be the right step to begin any digital learning intervention,” said a teacher of a government college.
These directions come at a time when the department has appointed nodal officers to facilitate telecasting of lectures via radio, television, and YouTube channels. While last week the department had asked colleges to make a list of subject specialists who’d record audio lectures that would be telecasted via radio, this week it has appointed nodal officers to identify resource persons for video lessons via YouTube channels.”We’re conducting multiple meetings and discussions to come up with a comprehensive digital learning programme will cover all the students. While online video lessons would help in taking lectures at doorstep of all those with smartphones, radio and TV programmes would ensure nobody is left out due to the digital divide. The database is a first step in that direction,” said an official from education department.