Dear Indian Students,
We all know that feeling of wanting an endless summer vacation. We also might know how restless we’d get if that actually came true. Not being able to meet friends, play with them, joke around in class, meet our teachers, smell the freshness of the pages of the brand new books, can really put one off. So, I can only imagine how you must be feeling now, when you never expected the fourteen days lockdown/vacation turned out to be a global pandemic.
I can only imagine how you feel about the goodbyes you didn’t get to say, the games you didn’t get to play, and the fun you didn’t get to enjoy, if you were a student who got to experience school-life. I know how it must feel to listen to classes where your teachers try hard every day to make you respond, and you just cannot because you don’t feel like it. I know how it must be to feel empty while staring into a blank screen, with names which you once associated with people who were so vital to your childhood memories. Virtual classes can be adequate substitutes for getting your concepts right, to fulfill the demands of academics. But they can never be a substitute for the knowledge you gain from the actual spaces you share with other human beings, the space that creates memories. I know you feel bored, worn out, stranded in your own homes, when reality lies outside the walls. I know how anxious you get on seeing actual beings once in a while, outside those walls. All this applies to you who know what a school, classes, education looks like. I cannot imagine how things are going to pan out for those little ones who never really got to go to a real school. First friends, first fights, first recess, first teachers, first cry on being separated from parents, all firsts blown in the Wuhan wind. But amidst all our pities and cries for normalcy, one thing we ought to realize is that change is inevitable, and it is essential that we treat the virtual as the new normal. The newbies could definitely find their moments of joy, nostalgia, memory even in this new life mode, but society might need some more time to stand on its feet and adapt.
What I don’t know is how kids from underprivileged backgrounds might be coping with the demands of online education, if at all they are still allowed to attend these virtual classes, if at all their schools still function. I knew of kids who sold bangles, and hairclips, in the streets of Delhi, who attended schools in the day and helped their parents in the evening, kids who’d do their homework, sitting beside the entryways to big brand stores. What I knew is that they were migrants and what I don’t know now is where they are at. Many must have walked their ways to their villages, were smartphones, or internet haven’t reached till date. Unlike the children who still get to be students in the virtual world, these kids might not even know if their schools are holding classes. I also know kids from semi-urban Delhi, who attend classes in turns, because their families can afford only one smartphone. They sometimes don’t get to attend classes because neither can they afford wifi, nor does their data last beyond one online class.
Digitalization has immense potential in bridging gaps, because it could give everyone an equal access to the same resources. But the pandemic proved that the real question is how robust is India’s digitalization and more importantly, who has access to virtual India. This is where social, economic gaps become stark, because even when this letter is addressed to all students out there, it won’t be read by a majority of them.
Yours Sincerely,
Annly Anna Kurian
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on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you
could elaborate a little bit more. Cheers!
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