Govt’s Online Classes See Poor Attendance Of Students In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The online education, started by the state government after closures of schools and colleges in the wake of third wave of COVID, has evoked lukewarm response from the students.

The Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) has been conducting online classes through YouTube since the closure of educational institutions from January 7. But lack of accountability on part of schools and a monitoring mechanism have led to negligible attendance by the students.

OSEPA’s YouTube class on Hindi for Class X students was streamed live at around 12.30 pm on Wednesday. But it had hardly 3,000 views accounting for less than one per cent of the students till evening. Similarly, the Geography class was visited by around 7,500 students, according to a TNIE report.

The classes for higher secondary students also elicited similar response. The YouTube videos on Logic and Geography for Class XI students was viewed by less than 500 students, the report added.

While the students alleged that they were not informed about the schedule of the YouTube classes or TV programme Siksha Darshan by the school authorities, an official of a school in Cuttack said they were creating Whatsapp groups of students for sharing links for online classes.

Since the students had submitted the phone numbers of their parents, they were facing difficulties in sharing the information about digital classes with them, he added.

The School and Mass Education department has planned a review meeting to finalise an action plan on online education on January 21 and district education officers have been directed to improve the students’ attendance in digital classes, official sources said.