Virtual Classroom in Nepal during COVID-19

Are we ready for Virtual Classroom?

The whole world is in chaos as it is engulfed in the pandemic - COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease - 2019) which was at first seen in Wuhan of China in late December, 2019; but now leave its mark throughout the nations without discriminating, how develop the nation is.

Even the power house nation who were roaring before, are also surrendering to this unseen enemy now. Whole world is in the state of emergencies as most of the countries have called complete or partial lock down midst the war against this virus coined as Coronavirus.
Likewise, how can our small, least developed country be untouched with this invisible enemy. The government has called out for a nationwide lock down to control the spread of the virus. In addition, the location of the country is also not in the favor as the epicenter of the outbreak is bordering the Northern side where as it shares open border with India to its East, West and South. The risk is high so one preventive measure is obviously "lock down" but, among various other problems following the lock down is the shut down of all the educational institutes. The right of children to get education is hindered; in other hand the government and educators are helpless to ensure that right. 

Education in Emergencies

The nation is definitely in the state of emergency but the most important question is "How prepared are we for this kind of emergencies?" The foresightedness of the authorities seems to be under standard as it is not in a condition to regulate any kind of action to untangled this mess. Even in this 21st century with the booming technologies, we are not able to take advantages of it. The schools are not able to carryout the teaching learning activities effectively. Contrary, some private schools of some major city areas have started and struggling to operate virtual classes with the video conferencing platforms like zoom, google meet etc; but the question may raise regarding the pre-planning and its execution. However, the efforts from an individual level is remarkable as those schools have at least introduced it. People are critiquing as it to be just a way to engage students rather than to make some significance in the teaching learning area. Many schools, teachers are in deep dilemma regarding designing the online courses. But, we can not entirely blame teachers for this as there was no proactive steps taken to address Education in Emergencies. The term "Education in Emergencies" refers to provide education to the children who are deprived of it due the conflicts, war, natural disasters or pandemic like COVID-19.

Reality check 

Among all, the biggest question is the "accessibility". Nepal is a country where most of the schools are deprived of proper infrastructure are in a war for existences.Likewise, the students are also facing various challenges to even get basic education. Hence, their reach to the technologies seems to be a fairy tale. The government is talking of virtual classroom and 21st century skills but all these wonderful ideas are constrain within the planning and policy documents only. How feasible is it to expect virtual classroom from those students, parents and schools who are struggling to be in existence.  After all these, there are some important issues which need a proper research and implication. 

• What are the policy makers planning to bring those policies from the decorated documents to the real work? 
• When will there be bridging between the planning and execution.? 
• What is the role of us (students, parents, educators) for ensuring education in emergencies?

Lets be proactive and a change agent.