Kem Chho E-Schools?

Tick tock...tick tock... The clock was ticking. It was 7:59 a.m. and I was staring at the screen of my laptop. "Please give me the code, give me the code, please!" I murmured.  You would ask, code for what, have you gone nuts while sitting at home? Thankfully,  nothing of that sort has happened till  now, but from today, there's a slight possibility of it happening.  Why? Oh, nothing much. The Government of Gujarat has asked schools not to demand fees until offline schooling begins. In protest, the schools all over Gujarat have halted their online classes. So, now you get it, right? I was desperately asking for the code for my first class of the day at 8:00 a.m. on Google Meet, not for some 007 mission!

I am sure that not only me, but most of the students all over Gujarat would have felt the same today. Many would ask why I would long for the reopening of e-learning, because of which I was diagnosed with Computer Vision Syndrome ( relax, it just causes irritation to eyes😀) and have to take eyedrops thrice a day? Well, considering a fact regarding human behavior,  I guess it is because we tend to value something only when it is lost or taken away from us. Like, who would have thought that half of my 10th grade would pass by virtually? We knew that technological revolution was coming, but with supersonic speed? No thanks.

Courtesy Corona, today, instead of our cream painted classrooms, we have Google Classroom.  Instead of the routine sing-song Good Mooorniiinnng ma'aaaam, we have a curt message of 'Morning ma'am ' to be dropped into the Chatbox. Instead of interruption of the class by announcements on the school speaker, today we are interrupted by the occasional 'कुकर की सीटी' or the noise of a sibling's tantrums from the mic of a student who forgot to turn it off. Today, the terms mute, unmute, freeze, lag and connectivity have become a part of our daily vocabulary.  Believe it or not,  we have adapted ourselves to be a part of this new "normal". And now, this decision by the government seeks to change all my above statements into past tense. 

Naturally, such a decision was met with tremendous outrage,  with parents blaming schools, schools blaming parents and both of them blaming the government together.  In short, a total हंगामा.  Actually, this blame game won't help the worst sufferers of this decision- students and teachers, who also, if I'm not mistaken,  are the most important people in the system of education.  So, for our sake, the schools who are not reducing their fees even during this situation should stop gold digging and reduce them. On the other hand, parents should also cooperate with the school authorities and pay the reduced  fees, as recession has hit all the people, including the teaching and non-teaching staff. Besides, schools and parents should devise a mechanism so that no single side bears the brunt of the economic slowdown alone. 

This year has been testing for all, so don't make it more testing by such decisions,  especially for students like me who have to give the most important tests of their academic life too. If you want to do anything,  just revert back to online classes. Peace! 

Let's hope everything gets back to normal(actually the new "normal", as the former is not possible at least in 2020) as even if online schooling has taken a break, studying has not!

Thank you for reading this blog and I am open to your feedback( please mention your name along with your feedback). We'll meet again soon with a next blog.

Bbye

Until next time

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