A major contribution to the poor mental health of students since the beginning of the pandemic
Mohmod Irfan Shah
Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit globally no one knew until when it would continue. Countries across the globe chose ‘Lockdown’ as the only way to contain the further spread of the deadly infection. However the cases kept on swelling with each day as on 2 August 2021, there have been 198,022,041 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,223,460 deaths, reports WHO.
During this pandemic people lost their lives, jobs, social life, family, and a majority of people wasted their time without their will. This concern rose, so the future of students was at stake too, since all educational institutions were closed for in-campus classes. Authorities decided to go for online classes via platforms including Zoom, Skype, WebEx, Google Meet etc and nobody knows till when this will continue. It has been around 16 months that the classes are being taken virtually.
Firstly, isn’t it difficult for a student to manage 6 hours of online classes and doing basic household chores? Keeping a phone in one hand and doing household chores with the other was never a concern for his/her parents or teaching staff. It’s obvious that the class work won’t stop for one student, so he/she has to manage it all together.
Secondly, students not having access to android phones, and good internet connection; has anyone approached them? No! They are left depressed with what’s actually going on in these virtual classes, as they have no way to attend this unconventional medium. Every time they fail to attend classes,get their assignments submitted, and are left with zero percent attendance, and are supposed to borrow a phone or even an internet connection to appear in online exams. However, with nobody batting an eye towards them, has left these poor souls with no choice, other than just waiting for this pandemic to end.
One of the major concerns in virtual Classes is turning on your camera and microphone. When the teacher suddenly asks a student to turn on his/her camera and microphone, it isn’t as easy as it seems to be, you have to be ready to face criticism, it’s obvious you feel more uglier than others, having messy hair, sleepy eyes, showing your personal space. It is obvious and understandable that we all are afraid of being judged by our physical appearance, afraid of falling to those “bullies” who capture screenshots and then these screenshots revolve in the class groups, being teased, is what adds more to the deterioration of the already ailing student community from the average or below average families. It is not easy for anyone to come up like this in a virtual world. At times, when a teacher asks you a question and you are speechless, with no appropriate answer, meanwhile thinking what others are thinking about you right now.
While being in a virtual class, you are supposed to be alone in your room to stay more focused. Being alone in a room for repetitive classes, we start feeling bad about the static life we’ve been surviving in, since the beginning of this pandemic. One class ends and the others are already in queue. It’s obvious that when you are alone, you think more and this is what leads to silent depression with no one to listen to your worries.
Apart from all of this, the students are already having a hard time in attending online classes, making notes, submitting assignments, maintaining attendance, waiting for a date sheet with no other curricular activities with seminars and conferences turning to webinars with no outdoor activity, all in all the stuff, students used to do outdoors has been restricted to a “Smartphone”. How is it possible that any student will be comfortable with it? Humans are termed as social animals and socializing is a very important part of our lives, but unfortunately we all are focused on the rising COVID-19 cases but not the mental health of students.
Adding one more concern to the list is that, Is it possible for a student to understand cent percent of the topic in a virtual class? The e-books were introduced to save paper, but these virtual classes aren’t able to save our education. Students hardly understand 50% of what is being taught because of which students fail to get a good percentage (of marks, as well as understanding). And we all are well aware about how parents are obsessed with the marks percentage of their wards’ in this part of the world. Also, in this competitive world when you get low grades, you lose many opportunities in your future which in turn will add more to the mental disturbance of a student.
And last but not the least, using a phone for 6 hours to attend virtual classes and then making notes from the same phone for another 4-6 hours with no rest in between, isn’t possible for a normal human being. If anyone is given a cell phone for 12 hours, it won’t make him/ her feel better in any way. It’s obvious that in the long run, it’s going to affect our eyes and in turn it is going to make us unhealthy.
Some of the known cases of suicide, linked to the online mode of teaching have been mentioned below. But it’s really unfortunate that they were not highlighted like any other suicide cases.
According to a news article reported by India Today (Akshaya Nath), a class 11 student from Tamil Nadu ended his life, after failing to cope with pressure of online classes, one more girl from the same state ended her life after getting into an argument over sharing mobile phone with her sisters for virtual classes and in June, a 12-year-old school girl from Gujarat’s Rajkot died by suicide after being frustrated with online classes and homework – her father had recently bought her a Smartphone for the online classes after much struggle. There are many cases like this, some of them just came on social media for a day or two, and others were just dumped. I saw no one raising a voice against it, no one talking about it, no one showing any sort of concern regarding it, and obviously no action seems in sight to find alternative ways of “socializing” and getting education.
At the end, I leave a question for all the readers out there: are these so-called “smart phones” sharing their smartness with us? Or are they turning us into a slave of “tech giants”, hence making us dumber and more dependable on them. Will wait for response from the learned readers.
– Mohmod Irfan Shah is a student of SSM College of Engineering, Parihaspora. He is fond of writing short poems and has also penned down a few articles. Currently, he is pursuing B.E in Civil Engineering and is in his IInd year.
