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No electricity, no study: teachers and students unite

* LCWU teacher says orientation lectures are being given either in dark rooms or in varsity grounds
* GCU student complains they could not prepare assignments over Internet

By Adnan Lodhi

LAHORE: Students and teachers are equally suffering due to the unscheduled load shedding in the city, which is hampering their lectures and laboratory work.

Students in Masters and Bachelors programmes, especially those enrolled in the semester system, said that they were the ‘worst victims’ of unscheduled power outages. They said the problem was even worse for science and information technology students because most of their classes were held in laboratories and required electricity.

They condemned the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the government for their poor polices, which had resulted in the current energy crisis. Students residing in various hostels said that they could not focus on studies, as their hostels had no generators, and also complained about the shortage of water.

Beaconhouse National University Mass Communication Department teacher Arifa Sarfraz said that several students were complaining that they could not prepare their assignments due to the unscheduled load shedding.

She said WAPDA should continue load shedding if required, but only after giving a timetable as unannounced power outages were disrupting academic activities. “The new session of Masters and Bachelors has just started in the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), but proper lectures are not taking place due to the unannounced power outages,” NUCES student Sabiha Moeen said, adding Information Technology students were suffering the most because they could not work on computers. Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) teacher Khansa Nazim said teachers were also affected because they usually relied on multimedia projectors to deliver lectures.

Dark rooms: She added that the new academic session had started in the university but teachers had to give orientation lectures either in dark rooms or grounds. The LCWU teacher said power outages had brought all academic activities to a ‘standstill’.

Labs: She said that IT students were suffering despite the availability of generators and un-interrupted power supply (UPS) systems as the university administration did not want to risk damaging computers by running them on these electricity back-ups. Government College University (GCU) Bachelor of Arts student Rizwan Mehmood said load shedding over the past week had forced the university administration to shut down computer and other laboratories as electricity fluctuation could damage expensive equipment.

Internet: Aousaf Ahmad, another GCU student, said students often attended lectures without any electricity, and could not consult the Internet for preparing the numerous assignments given to them in the semester system.

King Edward Medical University student Rabia, who lives in a hostel, said it was hard to concentrate on studies without electricity. Samia, a resident of the Punjab University hostel, said water shortage had become routine due to load shedding.

Housewife Razia Bano said children could not sleep properly at night due to power outages, which was affecting their studies.

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