In times of 2G, J&K edu officer says Govt ‘created’ US based ‘Zoom’ app

Sample this as you struggle with that low internet speed: An officer in School Education Department claims Zoom application, the top-end video conferencing product of a US company, is a J&K government initiative.

The shocker came on Tuesday when Chief Education Officer (CEO) Kupwara, Abdul Hamid Fani, said how he was “supervising the process of educating students through online modes.”

“I am personally monitoring the ‘Zoom Application’, which has been created by the government to reach out to students more effectively in the district,” Fani said in an official statement released by the government late Tuesday evening.

Fani crediting the NASDAQ listed company’s top product to J&K government is, on the face of it, an issue of lack of knowledge on his part.

It, however, also shows how the CEO claims using communication platforms like YouTube, WhatsApp, and Zoom for imparting education digitally while comfortably skipping the festering issue of lack of high-speed 4G internet in Kashmir suspended for more than eight months now.

The Kashmir Monitor tried to contact Fani several times to know about his comments. The CEO Kupwara’s contact number listed on School Education Department’s website was that of the former CEO. Another contact number listed against Fani’s name (when he was CEO Ramban) too, when called, was received by someone else.

In the statement, however, Fani was all praises about how the administration in the district was using Whatsapp, YouTube and ‘J&K Government’s’ Zoom application to connect with the students of all Higher Secondary and High schools.

“The department has made elaborate arrangements to connect students of all Higher Secondary and High schools of the district through separate WhatsApp groups where concerned teachers are delivering study materials to the students on-line. Besides, various Subject Matter Experts are delivering lectures on different topics on YouTube to enable students to avail the opportunity of studying at home in view of lockdown.”

Fani said he has instructed heads of Higher Secondary and High Schools to create WhatsApp groups at block levels, besides a YouTube channel has been also created to deliver lectures with an aim to reach all the students of the district.