Is it really a coronavirus curse for education?
“How to use zoom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Anyhow we have to learn!”
One of the students asked his friend when their online classes started from April 2020. Covid-19 left a great impact on education. Since the day this pandemic has started to spread every sector has been affected however, when it comes to the education sector, students are impacted.
Examinations on the other hand which were supposed to be taken for the students are somewhere put on hold and many institutions have promoted the students. In upcoming years how will this decision have an impact further. We can see the future of the education sector. Spending more funds on education would not help in any way until certain new ways are found in order to have proper structure to groom the students especially when it comes to India.
No doubt, in order to break the chain there is an utmost need to stay in our homes however, proper measures and ways have to be found out so that students’ studies are not hampered in any way. Exams and interviews for higher education have been postponed. The students who hail from rural areas might even think to drop out as their families don’t have an income source to pay fees. Perhaps even a bigger problem in front of us. Isn’t it?
Anything positive so far?
The educators especially in schools and colleges who haven’t used any digital platforms so far to do video conferencing and get connected with the students have started using the video conferencing applications such as webex, zoom, eztalks etc. While we can say that students at this early age got exposed to technology and went digital.
Isn’t this amazing.? Finding something positive and thanking pandemic in a way? Going digital has so much power and it has been realised to us after covid-19 came especially when we talk about India. Students submit their assignments, complete their homework, and attend classes via this medium. While educators sit in their comfortable homes and teach at ease.
There was a time when some “so called work” could not be done from home. Now we can see that even the education sector in this crucial period has shifted to online mediums. Gone are the days when our physical presence was required and now we just need a laptop, internet connection and it’s done.
Should it continue like this?
Education is not only about curriculum that means to simply grasp the theory but how a person can evolve himself or herself utilizing the knowledge from the legit resources. So, it can be acquired even when we are at home. However, both online and offline mediums have their own pros and cons. Students and educators have to be in discipline so this can only be done via conducting offline sessions or classes. Examinations are definitely taken seriously when we go to offline centers. Perhaps we make sure that we are on time.
While online classes are somewhat in a relaxed manner. No matter how much hard we try to be disciplined, try to wake up early but this won’t have an impact like offline classes have. Educators tend to explain and try to shorten the lectures thereby ending up giving an overview while the students are unable to clear the doubts in person.
The main concern to save our rural children who might plan to leave their education in the middle because of the financial crisis. We as the citizens can contribute something of our own, perhaps delivering the lectures or start free training or classes for those who are in need. There are various institutions which have taken that initiative to provide their some of the paid courses as free such as Udemy, Coursera and Harvard University. If they can, why can’t we?
We have a choice and we can surely go for it.! You know it very well. :)
The article was written by Katyayani Sharma
Katyayani Sharma, is an MTech graduate, worked as a software professional in corporate for 2 years and now a soft skills trainer, certified practitioner and an activist.
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