Never in modern history have millions of college and university students seen the doors of their education institutes closed for so long. The situation caused by the novel coronavirus, however, has not just affected academic institutes but also major businesses, travel agencies, corporate offices and government services—barring the essential ones.

As scientists, epidemiologists and policymakers began to focus on the new virus that triggered a debilitating respiratory disease, lockdowns became a norm since they were the only immediate option available. While the level of restrictions varied from one place to another, some countries even stopped their citizens from visiting nearby parks.

The COVID-19 outbreak took place at a time when academic activities were in full swing in most colleges and universities around the world. The immediate task, therefore, was to resume education and academic interaction within and across national frontiers. Thanks to modern communications technology, many institutions of learning in Pakistan, particularly those endowed with better resources in private and public sector, resumed online teaching, completed the spring semester, and enabled senior classes to graduate on time.

There is now a growing pressure from parents and students, however, to reopen universities in Pakistan. Keeping that in mind, the federal government convened a virtual meeting of provincial education departments on July 8 and decided to reopen schools in early August—and colleges and universities from September 15—with strict implementation of standard operating procedures devised by the health ministry. The meeting tempered this seemingly bold policy choice by saying that the government would take a “final decision” on reopening education institutes in the middle of August after carefully monitoring the virus trends in the country which, after five months of making new records, has finally flattened to an extent.

Maybe it is too early to declare a victory of what the government touts as its “smart” lockdown policy.

While there is a global consensus that education institutes must try to return to their normal pace, it should be clear to everyone that the old normal is not possible at this stage and must be avoided for the health and safety of students, staff and faculty. In the final analysis, health comes before everything else. Pakistan’s options in this respect cannot be radically different from what other countries—both developed and developing—are planning for the fall semester that is due to commence in late August or early September.

Pakistan’s universities are not ready yet to return to the old normal. They have space issues and cannot accommodate tens of thousands of students. Cafeterias are usually overcrowded and no less than three students occupy a single dormitory room. Under these circumstances, many universities have decided in principle to teach online for the fall semester.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais

The first option is to bring back limited number of students, staff and faculty on campus to test the waters, monitor and improvise safety procedures, and resume academic activity in relatively advanced areas of teaching and research. Each university, given its space requirements of social distancing and use of common facilities, will determine the optimal number of people allowed on campus. A significant fall in the infection rate and collective observance and enforcement of safety measures may set the process of more students coming back at pace. But that is a long shot.

The second option under discussion is alternating students to attend classes on different days and reducing the occupancy rate at dormitories by giving preference to those who hail from remote areas where internet services are very poor. Off-campus students can listen and watch lectures while sitting at home by using live video links.

The pedagogical methodologies and technologies the academia has used in the late spring are likely to be reemployed in the fall whether the universities opt for a hybrid system—a combination of on-campus instruction and online teaching—or all-online lessons, evaluation instruments and grading.

In my assessment, Pakistan’s universities are not ready yet to return to the old normal. They have space issues and cannot accommodate tens of thousands of students. Cafeterias are usually overcrowded and no less than three students occupy a single dormitory room. Similarly, washrooms, sports and other facilities are also limited to enforce virus-related SOPs. Under the circumstances, many universities are rightly averting risks and have in principle decided to teach online for the fall semester.

Keeping academic activities online seems to be the only viable option at this stage. It will rob the students of a true experience of university community, collective learning, and youthful self-expression in a relatively free and open environment. Many around the world are already complaining that their universities, governments and societies have failed them. However, education institutes have to consider the safety of their students, faculty and staff in a situation like this.

It is not clear if universities have learned anything or enough from their emergency teaching experience of abruptly going online in the spring semester. Three major challenges they confronted remain to be addressed to improve the quality of education. These are: training faculty in online teaching, student accessibility to high speed internet, and choice of online learning platforms. Even with the best of technologies available, virtual classroom experience cannot be the same as face-to-face instruction. Students’ passivity, physical constraints on collaborative learning, and stress are real challenges that even the best instructors find extremely difficult to address.

– Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Twitter: @RasulRais