Hardly three months after a much-awaited return to the campus, and students in some colleges of Delhi University have again been asked to attend classes, tutorials and practicals online; at least until the first week of June. A common reason cited by colleges, in different notices issued, is the paucity of classrooms due to the ongoing exams for second and third-year students. But how are the first-year students taking to this change?
No more back-to-home trips in heat
Komal Singh, a student of English (Hons) at Dyal Singh College says, “Online classes have both advantages as well as disadvantages. On one hand, it seems like a great relief as it’s kind of serving as a much-wanted summer break that first year students will not get now. So it’s only good that we don’t have to stride off in this heat to colleges. But, at the same time it will also break the flow of our studies as we all know how monotonous online classes are and we have been tolerating them since two years. After such long when we finally got a glimpse of our vibrant college and offline classes, here we are back again with the black screens. It’s okay if it’s just for a month but it should not be extended any further and professors should brush up on the topics which we did online once everything turns offline again.”
Will help stabilise attendance for some
“All I did in the first month was bunk classes to be with friends and part of societies. Hence I’m low-key glad for the online mode because this might stabilise my attendance a bit (smiles),” says Shirley Goodwin, a first year student of English (Hons) at Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur (SGTB) Khalsa College, who is relieved to get a break from attending regular college. She shares, “The first month of living on my own in a totally foreign city was exhilarating but equally overwhelming and it feels nice to have the opportunity to be back in my home town (Kanpur) for a breather. Also, because I wanted a break from my PG’s dining services!”
Missing offline activities already!
Pulkit Kashyap, a first-year student of BA (Prog) at Rajdhani College and an avid photographer, says he is missing going out in the campus with his camera. He shares, “I’m very passionate about photography and want to hone my skills everyday. And since college has gone online again, I miss taking to my photography. Even the streets look lovely in the evening, during summer, and I could have captured all this beauty had there been the bahana of going to college.”
Better off with more study time
“Our college notice said that because of the examinations our the college wouldn’t be able to conduct classes in offline mode for us, plus the rising Covid cases is another reason,” says Shreya Gupta, a BCom (Hons) first-year student at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) College. Sharing how this set-up has made it easier for her to work for her society, Enactus, she adds: “College has gone online for us. Right now there isn’t much work honestly because even the second and third year students are busy preparing for their exams, but for the work that we have, it’s somewhat easier to utilise this time. Because staying at home we get much more scope to focus on all our social work commitments.”
Author tweets @siddhijainn
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