Harabhanga: Children with their books trekking up a hill has been a common sight at Palasakutuni village of Dhalapur panchayat under Harabhanga block in Boudh district.
According to the villagers, the children are trekking the hill every day to take online classes. As the network signal is poor in the village, the students have no other choice but to go to a higher place to receive signal and attend online classes.
With the schools and colleges being closed owing to COVID-19 pandemic, online classes have become the new normal.
But reality bites when it comes to rural hilly pockets. Here, network signal is poor, nay next to no signal at all. The other problem the students are faced with is that most of them do not have android phones that are quintessential to take online classes.
The students of Palasakutuni village are experiencing these problems.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the village school has been closed. Our students are facing a lot of problems to keep pace with the syllabus. The teachers are teaching the students online. Where the internet signal is good, the students there are taking classes seamlessly. But our students are not that fortunate,” observed Sanuj Pradhan, a villager.
Some other villagers including Sanjay Palia and Abhi Danta alleged, “Our children are facing a lot of difficulties to take online classes. Every morning they have to go to the nearby hillock. No mishap has occurred as yet, touch wood. But if it happens, who will be responsible.”
When contacted, district education officer (DEO) Gendra Kujur said the department is aware of the problem the children of Palasakutuni village are facing nowadays. “The district collector has already been informed about the problem and soon something will be done to address it,” he added.
PNN
