Oversized online classes leave parents of school students shocked

MUSCAT: Parents of students attending Indian schools in Oman were surprised to see 96 children attending a single online class.

Their concerns over lack of individual attention provided to students are now all the more important, given the recent decision to continue distance education for the time being, issued by the Supreme Committee to deal with COVID-19.

“I was honestly surprised to see this happen today, at a school in Muscat,” said a mother whose two children both attended Indian schools in the capital. “If all of these students have doubts, is it going to be possible for the teacher to answer all of them one by one, and more importantly, give each question the time and consideration it deserves?”

Another parent added, “I understand things are tough and there is maybe a pressing need for teachers to push ahead with the syllabus, but this is not the way for online classes to be held. Maybe the school staff decided to merge a couple classes into one and take lessons that way, but this has brought up concerns for us parents.”

“We appreciate all the teachers are doing – it is not easy to teach online classes, and the same attention span and environment is not there for students, but all the same, classes must be held in a proper manner,” he said. “It is already quite difficult to handle class strengths of nearly 50 students, so double that amount is an even bigger challenge.”

While this concern of oversized classes is present in Muscat, a former member of the school management committee in Indian School Salalah said class strengths had actually reduced, because of many expatriates leaving the capital of the Dhofar Governorate during the pandemic.

“The strength of the school has actually fallen from about 4,500 before the pandemic, to around 3,500 at present,” he said. “This is because many of the non-Omanis here to go back to their home countries. Because of this, individual attention has been provided to students.”

“Class strengths were previously around 45, but have accordingly fallen,” he added. “I understand the concerns of parents during these testing times…their children’s education is most important to them.”