As the coronavirus lockdown in Pakistan gets severe, students are forced to take online classes from home in order to not incur any academic loss. However, it turned out to be a much bigger dilemma as the students are not satisfied with the level of assistance being provided.
Apparently, the lack of internet availability in certain parts of the country and the Higher Education Commission (HEC)’s negligence resulted in students protesting in worry. Analyzing the devastating situation, earlier, HEC took notice of students threatening to boycott online classes but nothing actually happened.
#ResignChairmanHEC trends on Twitter
After bearing the issues for a few weeks, now Pakistani students are demanding the resignation of HEC Chairman Tariq Banuri. Currently, the hashtag #ResignChairmanHEC is trending on Twitter with thousands of tweets pouring in from every corner. Particularly, the students have one main demand and that is to provide a better quality of education during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Point to note
#ResignChairmanHEC
Like parents, most teachers are new to alternatives to textbook education and struggling to create digital content that maintains the attention span of students who they cannot see in the virtual classroom. pic.twitter.com/h5DS8atYPQ— Malik Zamad (@MA5ZA) April 9, 2020
Future of students is at stake
We cannot let the chairman use the future of the students as leverage #ResignChairmanHEC pic.twitter.com/if2sZuDqeq
— Faheem Ali (@ranaeli0) April 9, 2020
Here comes an example
That's why i am against online classes #ResignChairmanHEC pic.twitter.com/cWF2rX3nCQ
— Hamza Kaleem ( STAY HOME SAVE LIVES) (@hamzabutt61) April 9, 2020
That’s how rotten the education system is now
With in the 1 hour 11k+ tweets
Show that how unprofessional in our hec chairman
Stop wasting our tax money
Resignation letter is only the solution mr tariq banuri #ResignChairmanHEC pic.twitter.com/4k70uTnkju— Pendu Sarcasm (@PenduSarcasm007) April 9, 2020
Exactly
#ResignChairmanHEC
Firstly train the teachers then take online classes. Urs decisions show ur imcompitncy.#ResignChairmanHEC pic.twitter.com/6C1FSjmb2w— Abdul Basit (@AbdulBa79794850) April 9, 2020
Well, in this sudden shift from taking physical classes to completely going online, teachers are also facing several hurdles. Eventually, the students are bearing huge losses as the technology unfamiliar teachers aren’t unable to perform properly. However, this isn’t the first time that HEC is facing criticism on implementing unplanned strategies.
Hashtags against HEC and other institutes
Previously, hashtags #BanOnlineClasses and #ShameOnHEC have also been trending on social media. Giving another lollypop to students, HEC then vowed to solve the issues of students but yet again, no action was taken. It just doesn’t stop here; along with the HEC’s torture, students are also being threatened by their respective institutes.
Daily Times
As per details, several universities are threatening their students to not take part in any social campaigns that can damage their reputation. Completely neglecting the needs of the students, the higher authorities are more interested in making money. In order to resolve the clashes, many students are even suggesting that the authorities should give a semester break at this point.
On the ongoing issues, a senior lecturer at Riphah International University in Islamabad identified the major concern. Quoting his statement, ”Pakistan is not a tech-savvy country which is one of the major reasons we are having problems in the education sector after the pandemic caused a countrywide shutdown.”
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