Power outages take toll on online education

Power outages take toll on online education

KABUL (Pajhwok): Some students complained on Thursday long spells of power outages had negatively affected their online learning. If the problem was not solved, they said, their time would be wasted.

Uzbekistan cut off electricity supply to Afghanistan a few days ago, causing severe hardship to residents of Kabul and several oher provinces.

A private university student, Khalil Afghanzai, said the present quality of the internet for online classes was unacceptable, a problem exacerbated by electricity loadshedding in Kabul.

He claimed electricity was supplied to Kabul for 4 or 5 hours. Power is supplied to capital inhabitants at a time when everyone is asleep. Hence it could not be used.

If the problem persisted, he said, students would lose their precious time this year. They would be deprived of online education, he warned. The students would be unable to attend classes and would have to study for another year.

Issa Hamzakhel, a student of the Nangarhar University, said that although online education had been effective in the past, it had become problematic because of unscheduled power loadshedding.

He urged the government to resolve the issue as soon as possible but not to waste students’ time.

Heelay, another student, also grumbled about the loss of her time due to the absence of electricity all day long. She argued the facility provided at night, when everyone was asleep, could be used be used.

The Ministry of Higher Education said the problem was temporary and would be resolved soon.

Ministry spokesman Hamid Obaidi said he had shared the issue with the power utility, which had vowed to address the problem.

Wahidullah Tawhidi, DABS spokesman, insisted the electricity problem had largely been resolved. Power supply to Kabul had gone up to 300 megawatts, he continued.

According to him, power supply would increase to 450 megawatts in the next few days.

bk/mud

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