As all schools are closed due to the pandemic, state-run TV channel Sangsad Television has started airing lessons for students of classes VI to X to help them with their studies.
However, a number of students and parents think the televised lessons are not helping students much because there is no room for student-teacher interaction and students are not being evaluated.
Some of them also think these televised lessons could help students who do not have any access to the internet or cannot afford private tutors.
Shahad Abdullah Adnan, a ninth-grader of Dhaka city’s Ideal School and College, told Dhaka Tribune it is a good initiative but the video quality of the show is not that good.
“I cannot see the board clearly. It is difficult to follow the class when I am struggling to see what is written on the board,” said Adnan.
He said he learned something from the biology class as the instructor went into details of the topics, but the math lessons lacked detailed instructions.
Adnan’s mother Shahina Akhter thinks students in Dhaka’s reputed schools are more privileged and do not really need TV classes for the missing school hours.
“Most students in a city school have private tutors and they are providing lessons online. These online lessons are helping students to catch up,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
She said these TV classes could be of help for students who cannot afford to get private tuition, particularly those in remote villages.
“Students who are not privileged enough to get help from any family member or private tutors should watch the televised lessons to catch up with the school hours they are missing due to the current health crisis,” she said.
Talha Zubaer, a freelance artist and a graduate of Fine Arts from Unversity of Development Alternative (UODA), has been tutoring his eighth-grader sister Nazifa at home since her school was closed.
He told Dhaka Tribune, they do not give any homework after the televised class and there is no way to evaluate what the students have learned from the classes.
“There has to be a way to evaluate the students taking lessons from the television. Otherwise, it would not be possible for the students to see their progress,” he said.
He also pointed out that the program only televised lessons on a few subjects like math and English for the eighth graders. He thinks other subjects should be taught at least once a month.
Zubaer’s sister Israt Jahan Nazifa told Dhaka Tribune she cannot set her mind to a TV screen because she cannot really ask questions to a “box.”
She said she watched three or four TV classes and then gave up.
“These TV classes did not really help me because I am a person who asks a lot of questions in a classroom. I cannot ask questions to a television set. So, private tutoring is a better option for me,” she said.
Farjana Islam, a teacher in South Point School & College, has the same view. Her ninth-grader brother does not watch TV at all, which is why he is not comfortable in learning from television.
Farjana told Dhaka Tribune that students cannot engage with the educators in a televised lesson as they do in online classes, and for this reason online live classes would be more helpful.