Digital decorum in virtual classrooms

The recent incident involving a teacher from a reputed private school in Chennai, who is alleged to have sent female students under his tutelage, inappropriate messages, and even had appeared for online classes while being improperly attired, has put the spotlight on the subject of online etiquette during virtual classes. Before tackling the notion of classroom protocol or propriety expected of educators in online environments, it’s important to consider the framework of virtual learning in India, and how it was put together when the pandemic struck the nation. It was in July 2020, four months after India went into a lockdown, that witnessed the closure of schools, when the Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy offered guidelines about online classes, regarding the duration and the number of sessions to be conducted per day. The document called Pragyata covers aspects of cyber safety, from the point of view of supervising students, and the e-content they access. Guidelines include keeping laptops in common living spaces (not bedrooms), and basic netiquette regarding posting of material on social media. Conspicuous by its absence is any explicit reference to tackling online abuse, especially when it is being meted out by teachers. Buried deep within the document is a hyperlink to a cyber safety manual intended for use by parents. The manual is lucid and descriptive and contains instructions on how to register a complaint on the portal of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences) link offers a grievance redressal mechanism to be used by students or parents to report any incident of abuse. The manual also contains data about nodal cybercrime contact points and the details of grievance officers. On paper, it seems like all the data is right there for the taking. However, thanks to the ad-hoc manner in which e-learning has been rolled out, such essential points on protection of students get relegated to the background amidst the din of daily classes. So, what changes do we need in the system to ensure that student safety is afforded paramount importance in e-learning? For starters, a proprietary and centralised e-learning system should be implemented in schools, instead of relying on free-to-use software such as Zoom and WhatsApp where privacy concerns still persist. There is a need for a supervisory committee within an institution, that can access live feeds from lectures conducted by any given teacher in the school. This will ensure that virtual classroom sessions are not conducted at the whims and fancies of teachers and that a modicum of academic rigour is imparted to such meets. The fact that classes are not happening in person is no excuse for attending virtual sessions in an unpresentable manner. It is understandable that in a nation like India, where real estate comes at a premium, not every teacher or student might be in a position to pick a disturbance-free, personal corner in the house. But it’s time that virtual classes are not treated as a temporary inconvenience and are given their due importance. Just as teachers are expected to conduct the session as they would in a classroom, students too are expected not to wander away from the computer or have their parents pop by with food and juice. What is also needed is a fool-proof online (and offline) feedback mechanism, that both parents and students can rely on, without fear of retribution from teachers or management. Like how educators assess the students’ progress, it is essential that students and parents also have a channel to communicate with schools, on matters such as the teachers’ competence. School administrators must treat this unforgivable incident as a wake-up call and ensure the right training is given and demand complete accountability, so that classroom sessions retain the sanctity and esteem they did before the lockdown.