LUDHIANA: Panjab University’s decision to continue online classes for the current semester has evoked mixed reactions from the students pursuing courses in various Ludhiana colleges. This has come as a disappointment to some students, especially those in first year, who have been eagerly waiting to go back to the college.
Ishika Jain, a BA first-year student from Krishna Nagar, who is studying at Mehar Chand Mahajan DAV College, said “Online classes are no doubt comfortable, but are not very effective. We have network issues and the college connections are not good either. Practical subjects are stagnated. In fact, I have home science and psychology and both are practical subjects. The situation is not favourable for the schools to re-open, but still students are going . There’s a big question mark on what’s going to happen and how will we cope with everything,” she added.
For Jai Singh Khurmi, who is pursuing LLB first semester, online classes are a bit of both good and bad. “Online classes are fine considering the importance of social distancing. But there is no way of having practical knowledge of some subjects, which could only be done in labs under expert supervision. And many students just show themselves present on screen but are not really there mentally. Many make excuses for not attending lectures or being late by saying network issue while some who wants to study actually cannot because of lack of resources. If schools can remain open, why not colleges?”
Gurpreet Sandhu, principal of Government College for Girls, said, “We have to follow directions of government, but switching to online is PU's decision. However, on the third day of reopening, we saw more students coming to the college, compared with previous days. We have not completely ruled out offline classes and students should come to the college only after the consent of parents.”