Two colleges run by Ramakrishna Mission started classes on digital platforms for first-year undergraduate students earlier this month and a third will start in November even as state-aided colleges are yet to take a decision amid the Covid pandemic.
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur, started classes on digital platforms on October 3. An official of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara, said they had started doing so on October 1.
A notice posted on the website of Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, says the first-year undergraduate classes will commence on November 9.
Swami Ekachittananda, the officiating principal of Vidyamandira, said classes were being held through both online and offline mode. “Teachers are holding classes through teleconference for those who don’t have access to the Internet or don’t have a smartphone’’ he told Metro.
A teacher said that at times they were holding live online classes for students who have good Internet connectivity at home. Study materials in the PDF format are being mailed or WhatsApped to the students.
“At our college there are students who are first-generation learners and many of them are from remote areas like the Sunderbans. They cannot be expected to attend online classes. For them we are organising classes over phone individually or through conference calls,’’ he said.
A similar blended approach is being followed at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur. Classes will be held online or through offline mode based on the availability of options among students, said Swami Sarvalokananda, the secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur.
“Classes will be held through phone calls for those who lack a smartphone or are facing connectivity issues,’’ he said.
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, too, will follow a similar approach.
An official of the higher education department said that although they had said that first-year classes in state-aided colleges could start in December, they would welcome autonomous institutions like RKM colleges to start classes through suitable modes whenever they deem fit.
“State-aided colleges re-quire time to put a mechanism in place for holding classes online. But the RKM colleges have the required expertise. So, why would we object to starting classes whenever they deem fit?” he said.
Since the UGC is insisting on starting first-year classes at the earliest, the department does not want to come in the way of commencement of the session by those who can.
Classes for the students in the intermediate semesters at the RKM colleges are underway and some of the students who are extremely poor have been brought to the campuses so they can use the Internet facility of the institutes to attend online classes.
“Some of our teachers and former students have bought students smartphones to enable them to attend classes on digital platforms from home,” said Swami Ekachittananda, of Vidyamandira.