Increased School Burden on Students Due to Online Classes

' All these years, we have been advised to stay away from the screen. But now we have to stay on-screen'.

Online classes have emerged as the go-to solution for schools looking to resume classes despite the pandemic. But according to me online classes may not be a good way out. With the introduction of online learning in India, students along with the parents were excited to see the digital age of the nation in advance. Students, in particular, were enthusiastic to attend their school from home. But with time, parents started to get concerned for increased screen time and students too are now worried about the same. With the introduction of online classes, the whole system has changed. The notes that we used to write during the class, which were considered as ‘classwork’ have now become the homework. So, now once the classes are finished for the day, we not only have to deal with the homework but also with the ‘classwork – homework’. After talking to a bunch of people from different classes and schools, I came to the following conclusion. On average, a student spends approx. 5-6 hrs. a day just for online schooling. Then 2-3 hours for extra classes like tuition, coaching (senior classes). Then, about 2 hours to copy the work from the screen to their notebooks (homework) - 2 hrs because it takes more time to copy from the screen and we have classwork + homework to be written. Then, 1- 1:30 hours for extra classes’ homework or extra work. So in total, a student spends more than or around 10 hours on the screen just for learning purposes. Isn’t this number big for such small kids? And since we cannot go out of our home freely to play due to the pandemic, our entertainment hours also come under screen time.

Now, if we compare our past and present schooling system, we used to spend no more than 2 hours a day (that too rarely) on screen for school purposes and 1-2 hours for other purposes. There is a great difference in the number of screen time that we used to experience and what we experience now. Spending too much time on screen has not only affected the eyes of many children but is also affecting the body posture. You can often find yourself sitting in an inappropriate manner. Isn’t it? Sometimes you may find yourself lying on the table chair! In order to keep our body posture in form, we are supposed to sit with a straight back. But, don’t you think that it’s pretty hard to maintain the same postures for such a long time? So many people have got weak eye sights. It has become important to get an eye check up on monthly basis. Eye doctors too have become important roles in our lives now. We, students, are so much occupied with completing the work all the time that we often fail to find time for self-studies! Not just for self-studies but also for self-time because who won’t get exhausted after having a long screen time!

Online examinations too have become a great thing to deal with. I have seen many students who think that there is no purpose for having online papers when anyone can cheat and get full marks. You don’t know whether the person is actually putting on his/her own efforts because you can just see their faces nothing else! Agree with me or not but we all know that there are people around us who cheat even with strict rules. Though we know that these cheaters won’t get a chance once we are back at school but still………..

Enough of talking about students’ problems, even teachers face equal difficulties as we do. Do you think it’s easy to check the notebooks online?

No right? See, this pandemic is really difficult to time for all the people across all the fields. Though we are still doing all are daily stuff but that is online. We really need to find a way out of this problem. But at last, we now can assure anyone that we can study even during pandemics! A solution that doesn’t stop our learning but at the same time decreases our burden and screen time and keeps us on track with our syllabus. No doubt, that government, and schools are working hard to address our issues, but we need to find a way out as soon as possible.

Hats off to all the teachers across the nation who are working hard to provide us with the best facilities even during such adversities. This shows their dedication and love towards their students. Don’t miss out to wish them on Teacher’s Day and make them feel special!

By: Anvi Tyagi

Student, Delhi World Public School, Noida Extension