Can every parent afford to buy laptop or a smartphone for his children to attend to online classes? What will he do, if he has more than one child? Will he buy separate smartphones for each of them?
These were the queries raised by the Telangana high court on Wednesday.
The high court sought to know from the Telangana government as to what its stand is with regard to conducting online classes by private schools. It asked the government to submit a report to it by Friday if any policy on online classes had been framed or not.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Hyderabad School Students Parents Association, seeking directions to ban online classes.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted before a division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijayasen Reddy that conducting online classes is “unjust for students coming from poor families”.
“Will all the people have the capacity to buy laptops and smartphones,” the court asked during the hearing.
The petitioner argued that conducting online classes before the beginning of an academic year is “illegal”. The court was told that the government had not yet issued orders with regard to the beginning of the new academic year.
The government advocate informed the court that no decision on online classes was taken yet. The district educational officers (DEOs) are deliberating on the rules and procedures, the government said.
The court has also noted that it is very pathetic to conduct classes for nursery and lower grade children.
