Pandemic effects on Education In India

Abstract

Our lives took an unexpected turn with the Corona virus pandemic hitting us hard. A micro-organism which is invisible to the naked eye has affected billions of people around the world. Though we are very eagerly looking forward to going back to our normal lifestyle but with the vaccine months away, living with it might be the New normal where things are not going to be the same as they were before. 

Introduction

The pandemic has adversely affected each and every aspect of our life right from grocery shopping to our schooling and education system. The education sector is at a stage that forks to the future which is the post-pandemic period where one path leads to going back to the “conventional teaching methods” and the other leads to new ideas, imperatives and new possibilities.

The current pandemic outbreak lead to worldwide closure of Schools and institutes of Higher education and India was no exception. As a result, majority of the schools, colleges and universities in India have initiated the e-learning/online learning method for their students. Closure of schools, colleges and universities has made a disastrous impact on society, and the UNESCO studies summarize some of it as follows:

·       Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools closed, children and youth are deprived of opportunities for growth and development. Institutes of higher education which offer academic degrees have felt the major brunt as the pandemic has completely disturbed its teaching and examination pattern.

·       Confusion and stress for teachers: When schools and colleges closed, especially unexpectedly and for unknown durations, teachers are unsure of their obligations and how to maintain connections with students to support learning. Transitions to distance learning or e -learning platforms tend to be chaotic and frustrating, even in the best circumstances. Absence of Individual / Inbuilt E Learning portals / Systems or Low Awareness of the same added more fuel to this issue.

·       Challenges creating, maintaining, and improving distance learning: Demand for distance learning/ e-learning skyrocketed when schools, colleges and universities closed and over pressured the existing portals for remote education. Moving learning from traditional classrooms to homes at a scale of this huge level and in a hurry presents enormous challenges, both human and technical. Moreover as time moves we also have realised that it is more of a mental challenge than any other problem.

·        Challenges measuring and validating learning: Regular assessments, notably high-stakes examinations that determine admission or advancement to new education levels and institutions, are stuck into dismay as colleges and universities closed. Plans to postpone, skip or conducting online examinations have raise serious concerns about fairness, especially when access to learning becomes variable. Resulting in stress for students as well as their families.

Observations

 The traditional universities state that there is no alternative for the environment that a university campus and live learning with peers in the classroom provides. The traditional classroom atmosphere enables an educator/professor to cater to the requirements of several kinds of learners they address.

Online instructions are more intense and need more-effort in delivery. Classroom teaching can never in any form be replicated online. The virtual classroom makes it difficult to assess and measure the teaching-learning process and its efficiency, and establishing an honest teacher-student relationship seems like a challenge as well. We also know that a student while on campus, learns not just the specific subject but it opens to them a new world of its applications and first-hand experiences.

However, despite many flaws within the on-line mode of education, it has many benefits too. Education cannot be kept separate for long from the tide of going on-line. It can help with the better integration of the curriculum of various students from all backgrounds and provides them access to courses offered by faculty members from premier institutes across the globe.

Webinar help students and teachers from various institutes to remain connected beyond the academic schedule. Students through on-line mode are also exposed to a great number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which have been capturing global attention since 2012. These online courses help learners to explore and choose any course of their passion. This is often evident from the increasing number of students opting to do courses in NPTEL-SAWAYAM portals. Online mode of education delivery and assessment was an evolutionary leap in the same direction that has come up in a big way with the emergence of big players like, MOOC, NPTEL, Coursera, Edy etc.

Also, learning and testing are intertwined intricately within the contemporary delivery of education. Often the challenges of testing and evaluation are more complex as they are harder to scale in the traditional models. While an online model will shift the onus of learning onto the learner, testing will have to be conducted in a secure and trusted mode that requires strict invigilation.

A hybrid model should be implemented which will have an extensive portion of the teaching delivered through online and only necessary part to be covered in traditional classroom manner thus a new system of student-driven education will emerge. Providing real-life learning through flipped classrooms and make subjective and objective assessment both in physical and online mode. 

Recommendations

Roles and Responsibilities for other stakeholders in the education sector -

·       Teachers: Teachers are the real drivers and it is highly significant to shape and build their capacity to align with the changing needs of tech-enabled education. Methods like one to one mentorship, designing new tools for assessment and enabling teachers to deal with the learning gaps through customised intervention should be adopted. 

·       Parents: The involvement of parents has always been inversely proportional to the age of the kid but in today’s time, parents should be more involved in the education of their kid. Training of parents is supreme as they must be both parent and teacher at home, familiar with tech knowledge in order to guide the students and track their progress. Parents must play a greater role in coming days with perfect sync with schools without which learning process for children will be severely impacted. Parents must support the school system for the holistic development of children. 

·       Management: There are five important areas where management must give greater emphasis on, activities like planning budget for strengthening technology and ensuring safety, supporting human resources, so that under any difficult circumstances they can work comfortably from home, bringing in new technology, not compromising with the happiness index of parents and students and to closely track new regulatory changes; appoint personnel to closely liaise with government. 

Conclusion

The need of the hour is to adopt a hybrid model for learning with abundantly equipped online tools and assessment methods for evaluations; redesigning and restructuring the curriculum is now a necessity. In the post COVID-19 era, traditional or offline education models will not become obsolete, they will survive. However, blended learning (a combination of offline and online modes) should be the norm. We should embrace the change and ponder about the endless possibilities this change might bring.

COVID – 19 has forced 1.4 Billion students worldwide to stay home.

Countries with Country wide or Localized school and college closures.

·       https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/future-shock-25-education-trends-post-covid-19/75729537

·       https://bweducation.businessworld.in/article/Schools-Post-Lockdown-What-Why-How-/09-06-2020-285780/

·       https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid19-lockdown-future-education/

·       https://www.thehindu.com/education/comment-higher-education-post-covid-19/article31341564.ece

·       https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/edutrends-india/re-imagining-schooling-post-lockdown/

·       https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/dornadula-c/post-covid-19-education-system/

·       https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/education/covid-19-pandemic-impact-and-strategies-for-education-sector-in-india/75173099

·       https://confluence.ias.ac.in/post-covid-higher-education-a-perspective/

·       https://medium.com/@daiictweb/post-covid-19-higher-education-in-india-an-interview-with-dr-ks-dasgupta-41c8217205d3

·       https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/4-ways-covid-19-education-future-generations/