Off campus education through online classes has thrown up more challenges than opportunities as covid spread has failed all calculations of the government and belied expectations of both the parents and as wells as the students. Even in Jammu & Kashmir covid-19 has orphaned hundreds of children and government by all means of calculations is yet to reach out to them for the purposes of extending educational and healthcare facilities to them free of cost. Much has been debated and promised to children orphaned by covid -19 but little has been done to secure their future . Children of lower middle class families orphaned by covid deserve more attention than the children of upper middle classes orphaned by covid as administrative wisdom demands that target groups are created with intent of reaching out to children of underprivileged classes in the first phase .Children of underprivileged classes orphaned by covid in last two years may or may not have access to smart phones and as such the government in the very initial phase has to try to reach out to such children who don’t have smart phones for attending online classes conducted by their schools .Knowing that there can’t any magic solution other than the facility of smart phones to reduce the inequality in online classes between the affluent and underprivileged classes of the society, the government can’t deny the facility of smart phones on one pretext or the other to children of lower middle classes orphaned by covid in last two years. Ironically the government can’t even count the government schools which don’t have even the computer labs not to talk of internet facility. The government can’t deny the fact that most of the children of lower middle classes are enrolled only in such schools.
The government has to show progressive attitudes to the educational urges and aspirations of the children of all classes of the society and in the prevailing situation the online education of children of lower middle classes has to be a priority for the government in Jammu & Kashmir like the governments of other states and union territories of the country. Expanding the online educational bases as such has to begin from the children of lower middle class families orphaned by covid in last two years .
The hurdles to universal and equal education were already numerous and now digital education amid nonstop covid-19 fear has further increased the issues of inequality in the access of children to online education and more so in Jammu & Kashmir. Education is a priority for parents of both affluent and lower middle classes of the society and there has to be no inequality even in the online education facilities between the poor and the rich. As such the government has to show progressive attitudes to the educational urges and aspirations of the children of all classes of the society and in the prevailing situation the online education of children of lower middle classes has to be a priority for the government in Jammu & Kashmir like the governments of other states and union territories of the country. Expanding the online educational bases as such has to begin from the children of lower middle class families orphaned by covid in last two years .
