Tech glitches, screen exhaustion make virtual coachings too taxing

LUCKNOW: Enrolments have dropped by half in various coaching institutes for competitive exams this session with students finding online mode of instructions difficult to grasp.
Every July, classrooms in these institutes used to be jam-packed with students taking admissions in large numbers after declaration of class XII and graduation results. However, as institutes have moved to online teaching, enrolments have dropped.
spoke to about 20 big coaching institutes and all of them reported low enrolment.A few have closed down temporarily. At some places, new batches are attending virtual classes on the promise that these will be converted to physical ones soon, while at others some students are opting out, stating that studying at home on virtual classes is a challenge.
"Our 2020 batch is to begin from July-end, but we are witnessing a 50% drop in the number of new admissions in comparison to the last year," said Ashish, director of a private coaching institute.
A leading coaching institute for civil service aspirants temporarily shut down as students weren't taking online classes. "For the benefit of our students, we lowered the fees, provided material via conference calls and other modes. However, students were not serious. They said they suffered headaches and other issues. Compared to 200-plus students in three batches in previous years, only 10-13 students have got themselves enrolled so far," said Ravi Mohan Srivastava, owner of an institute.
Students said that though institutes are helping a lot, they are not satisfied.
"We are not able to grasp lectures online as most of the time, lectures are halted due to technical glitches," said Abhiraj, a NEET aspirant.
"Teachers are doing their best, but online classes are not as effective as real ones. At times, cameras go off while classes are underway. Teachers go on teaching without an idea what students are doing," said Parth Mishra, an engineering aspirant.
Gurkirat Khurana, an MBA aspirant, said, "Students keep telling the teachers to speak out clearly or that the teacher is not audible enough. Also, we have a lot of distraction at home," he added.
Exhaustion due to laptop and mobile screens also remains an issue.