Those are exceptionally poor choices for a beginner's class.

I disagree. Why do you say they are?

Most new students have seen a text editor before (like Notepad or Microsoft word). They are used to things like using the arrow keys for navigation (instead of HJKL), not having to switch modes, and using the mouse to manipulate text. There are plenty of serviceable programmers' text editors which follow these idioms. Better to let students use something familiar so you can focus on the actual subject (programming) and not frustrate them with learning a completely different set of keyboard shortcuts.

When was the last Emacs that didn't use arrow keys by default? 1987 on a VAX? Ditto with mice and such. And it's modeless.

People just ape things they've heard without thinking. Emacs and Vim may not be perfect beginner's editors, but they are much better than just decent.

Because it's a class to learn programming, not a new text editor.

But they don't know any text editor. They have to learn something.