The Kerala State Youth Commission has recommended that the state government should allow the use of mobile phones in colleges. The recommendation was issued following a complaint filed by an All India Youth Federation (AIYF) member and it states that the restrictions on the use of phones in colleges should be lifted, to enable students to study with more ease.
AIYF member Amal B Nath had filed the complaint in the Youth Commission during the adalat (court) held at Kollam in December 2020. According to him, "despite the full-scale implementation of digital education in the colleges, the restriction on the mobile phone was creating huge difficulties for the students," according to a report by ENS.
The Youth Commission sought a report from the Directorate of College Education, based on Nath's complaint. According to the report by the Directorate, the state government has taken various steps to implement the digitalisation of education in Kerala, like introducing online learning systems in the higher education sector and open learning sources platforms such as Moodle. The Directorate claimed that the usage of Moodle by the students has greatly increased during the lockdown period.
The Commission, meanwhile, noted that physical classes have been severely affected during the COVID-19 lockdown period. "The students who do not have laptops and computers rely on smartphones to continue their learning via the online mode. Therefore, under this acute circumstance, there is a need for the government to allow students to use mobile phones on college campuses," as per ENS.
