Srinagar, June 19: The School Education Department (SED) Saturday clarified that the community classes would be held only in areas where the students do not have access to internet facilities besides radio and tele-classes.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Director School Education Kashmir Tasaduq Hussain Mir said that the community classes cannot be organised in cities and towns which have congested spaces.
“The motive behind holding community classes is to reach out to every student. There are some students who do not have access to the internet or smart phone and also don’t have their reach to radio or TV,” he said.
Mir said that in order to reach out to these students, the department has decided to hold community classes as an alternative measure to compensate their academic losses during the closure of educational institutions.
“There are some students in Handwara, Karnah, Machil, Gurez and other areas across Kashmir who do not have access to online digital platforms to avail benefit of online classes. So community classes are meant for the students living in these areas,” he said.
The School Education Department had approved holding community classes which were earlier put on hold due to the spike in Covid-19 positive cases reported from J&K on a daily basis.
In the wake of this, a large chunk of teachers had shifted their focus to community classes instead of submitting their routine online classes through the Learning Management System (LMS) app.
Teachers from various districts also complained that LMS goes out of order after 10.30 am to 2.30 pm on a daily basis which causes inconveniences to them while uploading their online classes.
“The LMS works smoothly only up to 10.30 am and remains defunct till 2.30 pm due to which the teachers are not able to upload the classes during the day time,” a teacher from Kupwara said.
In the wake of this, the teachers demanded that they should be allowed to hold community classes instead of uploading online classes through LMS which face technical glitches frequently.
However, the DSEK said that the LMS was working smoothly and teachers were submitting their classes regularly on a daily basis.
“The teachers should not get confused or deviate from the government’s decision to hold community classes. The community classes are meant for only those students who are not able to avail the benefit of online classes,” the DSEK said.
Notably, the School Education Department had started online classes following the government order to close educational institutions for offline academic activities.
The department has also arranged slots in All India Radio (AIR) and DD Kashmir to deliver radio and tele-classes for school-going children.