The Bhutanese Leading the way.
College students across the colleges in Bhutan are glad to be resuming their classes on campus after almost four months of online classes. However, Gedu College and Sherubtse College students are now worried about the upcoming exams on 13th July.
Some of the students said that they have had just over a week of classroom learning and are not confident about sitting for the exams. Quite a few students feel that the exam dates should be delayed so that they will get more time to learn in class.
A final year student in Gedu College of Business Studies, Nima, said it is difficult to catch up with the lessons now since online classes were not so effective for him. He said classroom teaching is much better than online teaching.
Similarly, a B. Com final year student Kinley said it is very difficult to manage the time to prepare for the exams that are fast approaching. She has missed out on some portions of the lessons online due to erratic network connectivity.
A concern among many students is that learning online clashed with constant household chores and other distractions.
Tandin Zam, a Political Science student said since we are done with internal assessment and now left the exams only that also the coverage are done online. Now we are left with our side effort therefore, worried for the performance.
She said at the beginning it was quite difficult to understand online class but we somehow became familiar to it. It is her first time appearing exams after online classes so not sure how we will be able to perform well, she added.
A final year BCom student shared that due to the current pandemic, they had to take online classes for more than three months and they hardly learned one unit while they were in the college in the beginning. The student shared that the online classes were not effective as they could not clear out their doubts in effective ways.
“We can learn better through the traditional way of teaching. Though online class is a new way of learning, but as we cannot interact face-to-face with the lecturers. It is not such an effective way of learning”
The exam is close by, many students are worried that whether they can perform well or not.
A final year BCom student of Gedu College said it is difficult to manage the time to do self-study for exam and to catch up on the actual concept is the biggest challenge. She said she is having difficulties in acquiring the exact knowledge.
Another final year Political Science student said having done all the assigned assignment on time, there is not much pressure, and moreover, the remaining academic task is also going well. As such, she does not face much difficulty. However, the student worries about the exam.
“If the respective college follows all the protocols and procedures of COVID-19 prevention, then it is wise decision on the part of the government. If the college fails to comply with the directives of the government, then it can be considered as a wrong decision,” said the student.
A final year Political Science student in Sherubtse College, Rabgay Thayae, said it has been going good so far. Facilities such as hand washing tape are working well and good. Class timing are also good and convenient. Only challenge is the wifi. “We cannot access to wifi like before. Some course work requires us to use large amount of data and high speed internet.”
He said online learning was definitely a whole new experience. With fast development and technology, we should try and learn through online also. We cannot always rely on traditional learning. Need to prepare for any types of situation like this pandemic.
Meanwhile, Students of Gedu College and Sherubtse College shares that it was a great move by the government since some lesson are best learned through face to face interaction. Many shared that they are used to the traditional method of learning, but they can get adapt to learning through online class, then they will be able to learn. The students are following health protocols by wearing marks, maintaining social distances, washing hand every now and then and scanning wherever they go, be it hostel or around college campus.
