Surkhet: Educational activities in physical presence have been stopped since last year due to the risk of corona infection. Lately, children's reading has been affected and online classes are being used as an alternative medium. However, parents are worried that online classroom learning achievement in children is not good and investment will sink.
Parents who have spent a lot of money on mobile phones and laptops for their children have been further burdened by school fees. Parents claim that most of the children who do not attend school physically do not pay attention to online classes. As a result, on the one hand, educational learning has not been effective and on the other hand, schools are charging 100 percent fee in the name of online classes.
Dhina Rokay, who has been living in Surkhet to teach her son, said, "I borrowed a mobile phone and brought it to my son to read."
For the past two weeks, she has been under pressure from the school. The school has instructed Rokay, who lives in Jajarkot and lives in Surkhet to teach her son, to pay the online class fee as in other cases.
"My son has not paid attention to his studies. He has not been able to complete his studies," she says.
She has been teaching her son in a private school in Birendranagar. She is worried that the investment will be wasted if the learning is not good and the school has to pay high fees.
Even Deepak Sapkota, who has a house in Birendranagar, is under stress. You have to pay the fee even if you are not allowed to take the class based on admission. That too is like a normal situation. "In the current situation, running an online class is a good thing, but phone calls and messages are saying that 100% of the fees have to be paid online," says Sapkota. "The school has not been effective in learning. The work is not good. '
He said that the schools conducting online classes should also pay attention to the learning achievement of the students.
In Karnali, only 33 percent of the population has access to electricity, while in Surkhet, 53 percent. Internet access is only 18 percent in Karnali. There was no talk of regular reading as there was no electricity and internet in the house without backup. Karnali, which has made the identity of the poor destitute, has less possibility of electricity and internet in everyone's house.
In some cases, schools are completing formalities in the name of online classes. No matter how many hours or minutes they study, they are taking arbitrary fees. There is no uniformity in the fees charged by the schools, the fees for online classes are different in schools with the same geography and the same facilities. Fees are being levied in the name of alternative means that are less effective.
Stakeholders do not seem to have even tried to stop the schools from charging normal fees.
Birendranagar, the capital of Karnali, which is considered to have the best facilities, has a similar preference.
"Teachers should be given net and out-of-pocket expenses, so they should be charged," said Pabson Mayor Purna Bahadur Bhandari.
So far, he has said that he has not received any complaint from his parents that the fee has become expensive and he cannot pay it. If someone complains, they will investigate and take action.
"No one is allowed to charge such a fee for physical presence. As far as I know, no one seems to have taken the fee," he said.
In areas like Karnali where online classes are not accessible, there is a need to find alternatives to teaching and learning, and increase the effectiveness of classes where they are being conducted, and stop arbitrariness in fees. Meanwhile, the city education branch has also stated that it is not allowed to charge a fee for physical attendance.
