As another online semester reaches its mid-way, the lack of access to the Internet and consistent electricity supply has come across as a major bottleneck for the resource-constrained students. Vox Populi talked to resource-constrained undergraduate students across different batches to learn about the challenges they face during the online semesters and the assistance, if any, they have received from the administration. The stories were narrated to Vox correspondents over phone calls and have been presented as-is. All names have been used with the consent of the concerned students.
Chandra Shekhar (Y19, CE)
I come from Jehanabad, Bihar. In the online semesters, I broadly face three problems: one, I have a very slow internet; two, the electricity supply here is very erroneous and goes off often; and three, my daily expenses in college were reimbursed by an external scholarship I had managed to get. But now at home, since I cannot provide the bills (like mess bills for food), I am unable to avail the scholarship and that has financially affected my family.
Due to frequent blackouts in my area, I nearly missed interviews I was shortlisted for, in the internship season this year. In fact, to give Citi Corp’s interview, I had to go to a friend’s house, which had an inverter.
The response of professors to my problems have been varied, differing from professor to professor. Unfortunately, there is no uniform policy, which the college administration follows about these problems. But most of the professors do not accept email submissions, saying that it isn’t their problem and defer the responsibility to the DoAA. This creates huge trouble for me.
I feel like people who have contacts and more friends are able to perform better during the online semesters. I have very few social contacts and hence, I think I suffer academically due to high averages.
Yes! If I am called back to the campus, most of my problems- electricity supply, slow internet and scholarship- would be solved!
Pratap Singh (Y19, CHE)
I reside in a village in Rajasthan. The internet speed I get here is 0.3 kbps! To put this in perspective, I need to walk 1 kilometre from my village to send a Whatsapp message!
The previous president (Nikunj) had helped me a lot. I used to get offline material in pen drives and my quizzes used to happen over email. However, in the next semester, when the president changed, all of this stopped! (He said he hasn’t contacted the current president with his issues yet).
In addition to the Internet issues, my family’s financial conditions are very poor. Also, I live in a joint family, so my house does not have a proper environment to study. Therefore, I rented a room in the city, where I could get better internet. I stayed there for 3 months, during which time my academic performance significantly improved.
But since we couldn’t afford the room any longer, I have come back now! Due to poor internet access, I cannot watch lectures and have to make do with the downloaded slides.
I also couldn’t prepare for the internship season because all resources were online and thereby, inaccessible to me. Moreover, I couldn’t seek help from friends, since I have lost contact with most of them during the online semester.
Some professors have helped me a lot like Prof. Pankaj Apte had waived some of my quizzes where I faced internet problems. However, some professors are ‘cruel’- they do not allow students in the class after the first 5 minutes and so, I am often left in the waiting room!
I had emailed the DoAA a lot of times about my problems, but have received no reply. The only help I have received was from the previous president.
I believe that I can do much better academically if I get access to better internet. I am doubly vaccinated now and hence, request the administration to call me back to the campus as soon as possible!
<Name Retracted> (Y18, MSE)
I come from a village in Rajasthan and here, we have pathetic internet speed!
With 3 labs every week of 3 hours each, I face a lot of problems due to my internet. Moreover, exams which have proctoring over Zoom or which require submission of large files are very troublesome for me. The other issue is that I live in a house with 24 members – hence, the environment is not exactly conducive for my academic pursuits.
I am very concerned about the upcoming placements because firstly, I am unable to access online resources, thanks to my internet problems. And secondly, I cannot attend long Zoom interviews as my internet gives up after some time!
I have emailed the DoAA and the DoSA multiple times but haven’t received any help from them! The only help I have received is that some professors have given me 10-20 extra minutes for submission, but that was also not allowed by all professors.
<Name Retracted> (Y20,CE)
In my district, there is only one network provider, who provides decent connectivity. However, the tariff plans are substantially expensive. With ‘camera on’ policies being adopted in some of my courses, if we have a couple of classes and an exam on the same day, then rationing of the internet plan becomes a major hassle. In case of a disruption, my instructors have most often not paid any heed to submissions via emails and appeals through forums have not garnered any response.
Additionally, I come from a Hindi-medium school. Although I attended remedial classes, I find it hard to grasp lecture content. In fact, one of my professors also ridiculed Hindi-medium students in a class and called them ‘backward’.
I tried reaching out to the Counselling Service and the Hall Office for help, but I did not receive any concrete response to my concerns and the network connectivity issues still persist.
I think it would be very helpful if the institute provides some financial aid to students facing such issues in the online semester so that we can at least make a substantial effort to catch up with our peers in academics.
Jitesh Sethi (Y20, CHM)
I live in a town in Nagaland and face frequent power cuts. Even today, we didn’t have power for the entire day. In fact, I don’t own a laptop, which means that I have to attend all my classes and appear for my exams with the help of my phone. This is a major bottleneck for me because I faced issues in my first year where I was only able to submit 3-4 pages of my 16-page long answer scripts.
Moreover, I live in a joint family and I don’t have a personal room for attending classes and appearing for exams. There are always people present since we don’t have separate rooms for everyone.
With sporadic internet connectivity and limited facilities, the online semester is tough to keep up with. I had emailed professors in my first year about my concerns but I didn’t get any reply. This semester, I brought my problem up with a professor in class, however, I was told that it wasn’t his domain to act on it and that there was little he could do. There isn’t any formal mechanism in place to ask for any aid in this matter!
Campus reopening would definitely solve most of my problems since a little personal space, ample internet connectivity and appearing for exams would be comparatively very easy than what it is now.
Bhawani Shankar (Y20, ME)
I live in a home with only one room, meaning that some of my family members are often present while I have to take exams or attend classes. Since my home is also near the highway, it becomes quite cumbersome to attend lectures without disturbance. Screen times have increased drastically in the online semester, and health-related concerns like body aches, the strain on the eyes and ears and improper sleep too have affected my academic performance to a significant extent.
The network connectivity issue is very real. I’ve faced disruptions in connectivity during lectures and the problem during exams has led to me losing a lot of marks in the first couple of semesters. I tried to reach out to professors regarding the network connectivity concerns, however, I’ve either not received any reply or have been told that it is my problem to deal with.
With the lab courses this semester, a number of us living in rural cities face a problem since we need to go to the city, which is about 20km from my place, to get the necessary apparatus to complete the experiment. This frequent travel and the unavailability of certain materials in my locality means that I’ve to spend added time and money to be prepared for the coursework. I also know of certain friends who are not able to afford expensive laptops and are facing issues running heavy softwares like AutoDesk Fusion 360, which are mandatory for coursework in my department.
Reopening of campus would mean that several of these problems are solved for resource-constrained students. It’d also help to reduce academic stress on students. Any aid from the administration and the faculty would really help us, students, to make the most out of the coursework we have.
Our opinion
While we could cover only so many students, these problems plague a much larger section of the student community. The online semesters have led to increased inequity, as we all do not have access to the same resources. We believe that calling back resource-constrained students would solve most of these problems, and this should have been prioritised long before. It is welcome to hear from the DoSA (in his email dated 6 September) that discussions to call back resource-constrained students have begun but it remains to be seen when the actual plan materialises.
Credits- Abhimanyu Sethia, Aryan Pandeya, Parikshit Tomer
Graphics- Vijay Bharadwaj
