Anantnag college students demand daily offline classes instead of once-a-week class

Anantnag: The government’s decision to conduct offline classes in colleges has drawn flak as the students from various colleges demanded that their offline classes should be conducted on a daily basis.

The students of Women Degree College Anantnag complained about the rotation system and the odd-even system framed by the J&K Higher Education Department saying that their classes were only conducted once in a week.

“The college authorities asked us to attend the college for offline classes only on Saturdays. Under this system, it will take around two years to complete the syllabus of one semester,” said a student of the college.

The second semester students of science and arts stream in the college said that they had attended offline classes only once since the government ordered resumption of offline classes in degree colleges across Kashmir.

“Attending offline classes once a week doesn’t serve any purpose for us as teachers don’t take our online classes for the remaining work days,” the students said.

The second semester students said that they were informed that their semester exams would be conducted in March this year, which they termed “bizarre” keeping in view the ongoing schedule of the offline classes.

The government degree colleges and universities in Kashmir reopened on Monday for offline classes amid partial attendance of the students and strict adherence to COVID-19 SOPs issued by the government.

All the educational institutions remained closed for almost a year due to COVID-19 outbreak.

As already reported, the college authorities had notified that the class work would be conducted on an odd-even basis.

The students with odd roll numbers for 2nd, 4th and 6th semesters are supposed to attend the classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the students with even roll numbers would attend the classes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

“But the irony is that the college authorities have asked us to attend classes only on Saturday. We urge the government to resume our offline classes on a daily basis. Otherwise our syllabus will not be completed,” the aggrieved students said.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Principal Women Degree College Anantnag Ali Muhammad Dar said more time was dedicated to the 5th semester students as their exam is scheduled in March followed by the exams of 3rd semester students.

“This is why we have allotted maximum days to 5th semester students and 3rd semester students. The exam of 2nd semester students is scheduled in April,” he said, adding that they were managing to conduct offline classes amid COVID-19 scare.

“We can’t call all the students to the college, but we have planned to allot more days to 2nd semester students from March. Online classes will also be started for these students,” he said. “The grievance of 2nd semester students was genuine but the college wants to focus on 5th semester students as their exam is in March.”