Schools Can Allow Students To Attend Classes, With Social Distancing, If Special Attention Needed & Online Teaching Not Possible: Madras HC [Read Order]

The Madras High Court on Wednesday held that schools in Tamil Nadu can allow students to attend classes, by following physical distancing norms, if special attention is required and online teaching is not an option. Alternatively, the Court said the teachers could also go to the residence of the students. The Court was dealing with writ petitions having been filed expressing concerns on the usage of online classes hastened by the pandemic. The Court noted that there are many questions that pop-up for consideration: the problems in the usage of technology qua online classes, the roles to be played by all the stakeholders, namely, the instrumentalities of the State, Schools and the Parents. Another important factor is the social divide which unfortunately gets widened through imparting of the present education between the rich and the poor through varied curriculum, methodology and facilities. On behalf of the petitioners, the following concerns were raised: (i) there is no mechanism to prevent the obscene and pornographic videos that pop-up during the online classes. The young inquisitive mind would certainly be tempted especially when there is no possibility of the elders being around; (ii) of all the modes, the recorded versions through the local television channels should be a preferred one, as the issues including the access and the availability would not arise; (iii) online classes are being conducted without adhering to the time limit, and therefore, the institutions will have to be strictly asked to follow the guidelines; (iv) online classes create more differences between the rich and the poor. There are serious problems towards connectivity and the availability, no steps have been taken to find out these problems; (v) there has been a time limit for disposing of complaints by the police. A case has to be registered at the earliest and enquiry will have to be completed in a time bound manner. The guidelines issued should be directed to be complied with in letter and spirit. Incidentally, there must be a mechanism to supervise the implementation; (vi) the time limit fixed will have to be varied as the classification made for different groups of students is not correct; (vii) since the entire methodology adopted is temporary, there shall not be any insistence towards evaluation and the understanding of the students being different from each other has to be kept in mind. (viii) there is no element of privacy involved and, therefore, end-to-end encryption will have to be ensured. Justices M. M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha observed that the purpose and object of education has been misunderstood for quite some time along with the role to be played by the teachers and that education is not mere imparting of knowledge. "A mere knowledge in literacy, as we understand in common parlance, can never be termed as education. It is one's own growth of wisdom, compassion, character followed by conversion into action that would constitute education", said the bench, adding that a great nation is built on a character of its own citizens and it transforms into the character of the nation leading to its progress achieved through a value system. The bench expressed the view that with the onslaught of information pouring through the technology, it is imperative to make sure that the children are groomed in the right way, that technology as such cannot be faulted but only its wrong usage. "We are concerned in these batch of cases on the right use of technology in imparting education which by the definition mentioned earlier would only be construed as 'growth of wisdom'", said the bench. "Comprehensive and extensive guidelines are issued by the Central Government and the State Government. In fact, the guidelines for Digital Education issued by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India called as "PRAGYATA" is adopted substantially by the State Government", reflected the bench. However, the bench noted that the question that arises for consideration is on the implementation of the guidelines which would include compliance by the schools and the parents. The bench was aware that the incidental question is also on the inability of the students having access either due to lack of internet or the availability of device, appreciating empirical data that most of the parents may not have either smart-phones or any other electronic devices to facilitate their wards in getting the benefits of online education. "PRAGYATA Guidelines for Digital Education – These guidelines have been introduced by the Union of India with the knowledge that the Online Education can never be substituted for classroom learning, while acknowledging the advantages in doing so. It recognized three modes of education for online/digital education. They are, (i) online mode, (ii) partial online mode and (iii) offline mode. It fixes specific roles to...

Schools Can Allow Students To Attend Classes, With Social Distancing, If Special Attention Needed & Online Teaching Not Possible: Madras HC [Read Order]

Mehal Jain

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