UGC guidelines to be against most students who cannot afford digital infrastructure

UGC guidelines to be against most students who cannot afford digital infrastructure

admin | 2021-05-31
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According to UGC’s draft guidelines issued recently, higher education institutions (HEIs) may be allowed to teach up to 40% of the syllabus of each course through online mode and the remaining 60% through offline teaching.

University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a concept note on the blended mode of teaching and learning in universities and colleges that have not gone down well with the academia who claim that it is premature to expect a majority of students to accustomed to online learning.

"The blended teaching-learning method will be more flexible, engaging, interactive and effective for teachers as well as students, especially during the Covid times when classes are not happening in the physical mode.”Says Rajnish Jain, secretary & CVO, UGC.

But academia opines that online teaching as a replacement of on-campus classes is not feasible due to lack of infrastructure and equipment with a majority of the students.

“With three-fourth of the students coming from SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PWD and remote areas like NE & JK, who are mostly on the wrong side of the digital divide, the latest UGC guideline is far away from the ground reality, says Rajesh Jha, associate professor, Rajdhani College, Delhi University.

Also, the quality of on-campus learning cannot be compared with online learning. “Offline learning is always qualitatively better than the online method, especially in Science or Social Science subjects. Interacting with the peer group and teachers on the campus has its own advantages and can have no substitute,” says Jha.


Though Jain reasons out that a large number of students do have smartphones and they are making use of social media with the basic internet and email facility, Jha nullifies it saying that merely having a smartphone does not mean having access to the digital medium. “Effectively, only 12.5% of the households have internet access at home on a computing device. The data also varies from state to state. For example, the sample survey says that in Andhra Pradesh, 30% of rural households have access to the internet, but only 2% of the people are likely to have ‘effective’ internet access at home, that is, with a computing device,” says Jha.

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