Digital divide in Nagaland: Student community comes to rescue in Tobu area

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 17 (EMN): Among many revelations, coronavirus pandemic has brought to light the sharp digital divide in the country as well as in Nagaland, severely affecting the education sector due to the forced shift to online classroom. Amid this limitation, some are going out of their way to ensure that underprivileged students are not left behind in receiving virtual education.  

Online education has its takers in urban schools and towns with access to the required facilities but it has ‘pushed the teachers and students in rural areas to fend on their own’. This observation was shared by a principal of a government school while speaking to Eastern Mirror.

The principal, who wished not to be named, acknowledged that the department's initiatives come with good objective and intention, but it does not ‘consider the already existing division in the state, especially those in the interior parts of the state which are still struggling for basic amenities like road connectivity, infrastructure, better health services, let alone internet facility’.

"Even when parents do not own a phone, how can we expect them to afford a smart phone for their children? The benefits of online classes are difficult to reach far-flung areas,” the principal said.

He also pointed out that the introduction of teaching on Doordashan and YouTube channel is not beneficial for the students as they could not 'follow the teaching’ and the online evaluation would not do justice, especially to the 'deserving students' who do not have access to phones, computers and internet connectivity.

“Imparting online classes is not easy as it is a new concept for the students, especially for those who are not friendly with phones or are first-time users,” he stated.

Another concern for the 'interior regions of Nagaland' is that most ‘students live at someone's home as domestic helper while studying at a government school at the same time’, making it difficult for the school/teacher to reach them and conduct classes. However, the assistance and support from student bodies has eased the issue to an extent, he added.

“If the department had considered the issues of those areas and the deprived students, and not just take into consideration the urban school students and their accessibility, they could have come up with materials and cut down on syllabus considering the time factor; it could have at least reached the students who have no access to connectivity.

"The functioning of the department has been exposed during this pandemic. The poor infrastructure which should have been covered by the centrally-sponsored schemes, the absence of computers in schools, especially in rural areas, to name a few, have been brought to light with the introduction of the online classes.

“The problems of the minority are never considered and that is why the interior parts of the state are always behind but in spite of all the odds, some government schools are performing exceptionally at par with private schools and urban schools," the principal said.

Student community comes to rescue

Schools of Tobu area in Mon district, which has 30 government schools, have also been fighting against the odds. Under the 'teach for Tobu' initiative, the Tobu Area Students’ Union (Tasu) has been picking up 'graduate students' as volunteers from every village and engaging them in preparing notes, said Sangti Konyak, the Tasu president.

"Initially, we were imparting home tuition to students focusing more on students of classes 8, 9 and 10, but due to the rise of (Covid-19) cases in Mon and the extension of lockdown which we did not expect, we have been circulating notes house-to-house as some villages do not have access to internet,” he pointed out.

“Those students who were studying in Kohima, Dimapur and other towns while working as a domestic helper have returned home because of the lockdown and now have become our responsibility as we cannot afford to let them miss out on their academics.

"No alternative has been left for the students and the teachers other than following the instruction of the department even though the interior parts of Nagaland have no access to internet, phones and PCs,” he stated.

Bakon Phom, a government high school teacher at a village located a few kilometres away from Longleng, told this newspaper that the online classes in rural areas have lots of drawbacks as most of the parents in rural areas are daily wage earners engaged as farmers, construction workers, drivers, carpenters, etc.

They belong to the strata of society, which was badly affected by the nationwide lockdown and could hardly manage two square meals a day, he said.

"In such a crisis, it is next to impossible for them to afford smart phones, which will cost them thousands because of the sky-rocketing prices of the products due to the lockdown. It is beyond their limit," he pointed out.

“There are some families with four or five school-going students where they will have to make do with one phone, which can be an inconvenience in their learning process,” he said, adding that some students have already given up taking down the notes since they could 'not cope with the new policy of online classes'.

This, he said, was an ‘obvious consequence’ because this is the first time they have been exposed to online education.

"It is indeed a welcome move or initiative from the department to come up with such policy to ensure education of students even during an extraordinary situation like we are facing today, but the government should have studied or analysed the practical aspect of its implementation by, at least, consulting the main stakeholders such as parents, students, teachers or student bodies,” he said.

Another primary school teacher, Langvau Buchem, who is the head teacher of a government school in one of the interior villages, pointed out that the online classes have been ‘tasking and inconvenient’ both for the teachers and the students as none of the students own a phone.

In some cases, not even their parents have phones, he said.

“Not everybody has access to smart phones so they had to borrow phones from friends or students who have returned to the village. Network is another problem as there are only some areas where network is accessible; so during tests, they have to assemble at a house of one of the teachers where internet is accessible.

"The village council spent some money from the council fund and bought phones for the class 10 students. I spend my day running with my laptop, from one place to another searching for network,” he said.