“Apprehensions about the disruptions in online classes due to breakdown in the internet connectivity by frequent unscheduled power cuts still remain there and deserve immediate attention and intervention of the higher education department.”
With the fluctuations in sub zero temperatures heading to no dead end in Kashmir and Meteorological Department forecasting more intensification in the ongoing cold wave in coming day across Kashmir, the J&K Government’s Higher Education Department has very wisely asked colleges to conduct online classes for the undergraduate students across Kashmir. Knowing that adequate heating facilities cannot be uniformly made available to urban and rural colleges during biting cold of winter due to long duration power cuts in Kashmir, the Government found a situational compulsion in directing College Principals to conduct online classes to ease the accessibility of students to classroom teaching across Kashmir. While the conduct of online classes would ease the process of completion of the syllabus before the commencement of the examinations by the universities from March onwards next year, the apprehensions about the disruptions in online classes due to breakdown in the internet connectivity by frequent unscheduled power cuts still remain there and deserve immediate attention and intervention of the higher education department. Though improvement in the power supply has been noticed in Srinagar and major towns of Kashmir Valley after additional allocation of 793 MW power supply to Jammu & Kashmir in view of the rising demand of electricity during winter but still the students of some of the urban pockets and rural areas could miss online classes due to breakdown in the internet connectivity in the wake of frequent power shutdowns in Kashmir. To address the genuine academic grievances of the students who may miss online classes for one or the other reason the higher education department can direct college Principals to ensure conduct of doubt classes for such students who may miss regular online classes due to internet breakdown in the wake of frequent unscheduled power cuts.
“Administrative wisdom demands that Government directs Principals of all the degree colleges to conductdoubts classes for students without waiting for the complaints of disruptions in the online classes due to frequent internet breakdowns in the wake of frequent unscheduled power shutdowns. Such a practice of doubt classes would further the causes of uniformity in completion of syllabus in given time and reduce the scope for grievances of students over missing lectures in online classes due to frequent internet shutdowns in the wake of frequent power shutdowns more in the remote rural areas and less in the urban parts of Kashmir Valley”.
Such a practice if implemented to conduct doubt classes frequently would give the students of even the remotest of the remote areas of Kashmir valley the opportunities to attend the lectures after missing the regular online classes. Administrative wisdom demands that Government directs Principals of all the degree colleges to conduct doubt classes for students without waiting for the complaints of disruptions in the online classes due to frequent internet breakdowns in the wake of frequent unscheduled power shutdowns. Such a practice of doubt classes would further the causes of uniformity in completion of syllabus in given time and reduce the scope for grievances of students over missing lectures in online classes due to frequent internet shutdowns in the wake of frequent power shutdowns more in the remote rural areas and less in the urban parts of Kashmir Valley.