One of the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown has been institutionalised education. Schools have been shut to prevent the spread of the virus and this has given way to online classrooms, a very new concept in India even for the most sophisticated schools. It is commendable how easily some educational institutions have moved to virtual classrooms, all thanks to tools such as Zoom, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams. But there are some still struggling to get online. The online classes, whatever the enabling technology, is only as good as the teachers and the ability of the students to grasp the new teaching technique. One of the teachers felt students are actually more responsive and active in online classrooms, compared to when they are in physical ones. "This could be because this is a new concept and they are excited to explore it with the teachers. They also don‟t get distracted by their classmates, which frequently happens in a regular class." Teachers do find the absence of a blackboard a disadvantage and network connectivity a constant problem. "We miss the clarity that a blackboard gives us, we are kind of making do with the virtual whiteboard on Zoom." Shweta Kawatra, a parent who teaches in a New Delhi school, highlights that many students have not been able to take advantage of the virtual platform because they do not have a suitable device at home or lack a good internet connection. "It has its own share of disadvantages too. Too much screen time can be perilous for health. Prolonged online sessions can be overwhelming and may lead to problems related to vision, body posture and sleep disorder," Kawatra adds.
[Excerpt from an Article by Sneha Saha, The Indian Express, dated April 18, 2020]
Which of the following is an implicit assumption in the observation that students are more active and responsive in online classrooms as compared to that in physical ones?
I. Students are not serious while studying in physical classrooms.
II. Online classrooms inculcate more interest in students towards studies than the physical classrooms.
III. Students don‘t like physical classrooms at all.
IV. Students sleep in physical classrooms.
Consider this statement: 'Virtual education provides for various online seminars, opportunities to interact with learned experts, pro-bono education classes etc., for students across India irrespective of their economic status and background'.
Which of the following statements weakens the statement?
I. Many students in remote areas do not have access to internet facilities.
II. Many students in rural areas do not have devices to take advantage of the Virtual classrooms.
III. Online Seminars and pro bono classes are not interesting and do not cater to the needs of students across India.
IV. The mobile phone data packages to access such heavy online contents are not enough and participation in such events involves costly data packages which is dependent upon the economic status of those students.
The following data presents the cases of Japanese Encephalitis in five states of India.
Number of females affected by Japanese encephalitis in West Bengal are what percentage (up to 1 decimal) more or less than that of females affected in Odisha?
What is the average number of males affected by Japanese encephalitis in all the five states?
If the total number of males affected by Japanese Encephalitis in other states are 87 % more than the average number of males in Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the total number of males affected in India is:
By what percentage is the average of males in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh together more or less than the average of females in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha together who are affected by Japanese encephalitis?
What is the percentage (up to 1 decimal) of females affected by 'Japanese encephalitis' of the total affected population across five states?