How COID - 19 affect our Education

INTRODUCTION

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide education system has been severely affected, following the shutdown of schools and colleges/universities since March 2020 in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Conventional classrooms shifted to online classrooms which profoundly impacted teachers’ and students’ closed interaction, making a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process.

          The unprecedented health crisis of COVID-19 has affected almost every aspects of life. It was recognized for the first time in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly all over the world to become an economic and humanitarian crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Due to this outbreak, the education system is beholding an extraordinary double-shock: temporary

school closures in more than 180 countries since March 2020, in order to prevent the spread of the virus and disclosing the fragility of education systems worldwide. This interruption

to education and the expected reduction in global growth due to economic recession have a far-reaching impact on the most disadvantaged students who have faced vulnerable socio- economic family conditions. 

 ANALYSIS

  The long lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools, colleges and other educational institutions and ushered in the citywide classroom: tens of thousands of students in cities and towns are glued to computers and smartphone screens as teachers take to online apps for lectures, tutorials and assessments.

e-learning poses a challenge to both teachers and students over technology and access, but it is keeping everyone busy with worksheets, video lectures and assignments.

        Some institutions are uploading lectures to YouTube, while the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is deploying its Swayam Prabha portal, which has lectures on DTH and online, to help students. Andhra Pradesh is trying to tap Doordarshan to remove access barriers. Some institutions have adopted the Zoom app, others Google Classroom. Yet, the instructors are unable to say how effective they are, and not every student is tuning in. Here is how the system has rolled out.

Not all students might have laptops or tablet computers. “Since the whole family is at home, the only laptop or computer in the house might be used by the parents who are working from home as well.”

While smartphones are the next best option, teachers are apprehensive about students using them earnestly because of distracting apps.

         Teachers too might have technical constraints, said K.R. Maalathi, an education consultant. In a higher secondary school, teachers had requested for laptops to plan their curriculum. “These teachers are equipped to take classes but the same might not be the case for other institutions. Going forward, all institutions will have to chalk out an infrastructure plan,” she said.

  

ADVANTAGES:

There are no significant advantages because there is a huge loss in jobs, lives, and the economy of the Country. But speaking about the children, there are some advantages. School and Collages holidays Students can use their quality time in studying and the other activities in which they are interested. Spend time in the house by not going out and enjoy watch movies and do some craftwork. Time to spend with family. Best time to spend with grandparents, cousins, mother, father, and other relatives as there is ample time to spend (if possible, as per government norms). Moreover, everyone is doing working from home. There is no need to step out of the house and meet with relatives you can pick the phone and call them and talk with builds more family relations.

Watching a movie along with the family and enjoying it can only happen now at this time. Spend time with parents and explain career planning views and brainstorm them for stepping towards proper feature path.

Saving time to avoid transportation time, prayer, sports, chatting with friends. Spending five to six hours of the quality time for the online classes. Whereas in school, spent 10 hours. Getting more time for the self-study if we use in the proper way to avoid watching movies and playing mobile games

DISADVANTAGES

There are significant disadvantages because there is a huge loss in jobs, lives, and the economy of the Country. Main disadvantages for students are

Online classes, the adoption rate is around 50-60% whereas in the classroom the adoption was around 80-90%. Online classes affect the eyes of the students due to long hours in front of the blue screen. Small children like the playschool and the primary grades must not have this type of class because they have low concentration power, and these small kids do not have the ability to sit for a longer time in front of the blue screen.

Lots of poor students do not have access to laptops and computers; all these students are naïve, think there should not be this disparate education. Surely there are lots of disadvantageous factors like there are no exams; students are being given marks by the internals. This may impact their career in the feature. These factors are going to be a foreshadow to the child further life. On this note, want to say that students are missing the days in the schools and colleges. Hoping the government take good decisions on education with clear instructions as early as possible to avoid the situations that occurred by Covid-19 pandemic.

  

          The shutdown of schools has not only ceased learning of new things, but also made students forget what they had learnt earlier. South Asia’s estimated learning loss of 0.5 years of learning-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS) and economic loss due to school closure for students in India is estimated to be USD 420 billion in their lifetime future earnings. Globally, 90 percent of the world’s student population has been affected due to the pandemic, from which 800 million are girls, as per the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The prolonged shutdown transformed the conventional classrooms into online classes due to the contagious nature of the disease. The concept of e-learning had appeared with the development of Internet since the 1990s. Online learning, remote learning, distant learning, e-learning, internet-based learning, and computer-assisted learning are terms that are interchangeably used and not new for us. During this pandemic, these are the only sources that were utilized in the ongoing learning processes. Teaching and evaluation of students were done through information technology, which helped in reducing the learning gap that emerged due to the lockdown. 

       Pupils can now get subject knowledge, clear their doubts with mentors’ assistance, quickly share study material, receive rapid feedback, be more flexible, discuss with their comrades and observe their academic progress in online classes. Prior to the pandemic, however, e-learning never received the attention, as its effective learning outcome deserves(at least as much as conventional education did); however, the outbreak of COVID-19 encouraged virtual learning as a solution to overcome the existing learning gap in the world. During the pandemic, educational institutions and teachers are exploring and approaching numerous teaching softwares for students to

facilitate online learning. On the other hand, the impact of rapid transformation towards online classes is questionable. According to NSSO (National Sample Survey Organization, India) 2017–2018,

only 9 percent of the households had access to the Internet and computer in India. Around 90 percent of the currently enrolled students have no access to the required materials, which severely affects participation in online classes. There are stark socio-economic disparities in Internet accessibility.

 

           From among the poorest 20 percent and the richest 20 percent, computer ownership varies from 2 to 28 percent. According to the mentioned UNICEF report, approximately 120 million children in South Asia are on the verge of poverty due to this pandemic and around 240 million children reside in multidimensional poverty, which contains factors like deficiency of education, poor health, lack of sanitization and poor working conditions. The undeniable effect of stringent lockdown has decreased the

income and earning capacity of many poor and marginalized families. This leads to direr conditions for adolescent girls, as they have to carry out a lot of household chores and care for their younger siblings, resulting in their disengagement from online classes, which leads to an increase in learning gaps and gender inequalities. This pandemic has created a new crisis in the education system due to a huge digital divide, which leads to a loss of learning in the short run, while simultaneously increasing the chances of dropping out

from education. In the long run, there will be a huge loss in human capital accumulation and economic development.

         Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has closed all schools and universities to prevent the spread of the virus. The traditional classrooms changed to virtual classroom and remote education has become ubiquitous during 2020. Online education is the process that takes place over the internet. It has both benefits and limitations, traveling costs

and other costs are reduced in online classes subsequently teachers and students have the technological knowledge to access online classes and use of a computer. In the current scenario of unprecedented crisis, personal interaction of teachers and students got immensely affected due to the contagious nature of COVID-19. It has increased the

contribution of information and technology(ICT),which raised the challenges for students such as social isolation, connectivity issue, etc. 

         One study revealed the perception of

university students towards e-learning during the pandemic, as it provides more freedom to connect with the teachers and engage with their study material at comfort and flexible time and space. Online education has transformed teachers’ and student’s relationships

as teachers are not able to give extra attention and care to students who need more care and are suffering from physical exhaustion. The students also believed that online classes are not sufficient for them. The workload of teachers in online teaching has been increased due to needing to make videos, Power Point presentations and e-notes for students. Mobile data is not enough to work; it requires a strong bandwidth connection. In online classes, teachers and students felt physically weary and miss the environment of the classroom.

        Many universities students are from remote villages with slow and inadequate internet access; thus, they have faced difficulties while attending online lectures. It is also stressful for students to spend long hours on screens and mobile phones. The biggest negative effect of online lectures is lack of physical classroom discussion and disconnection from

university library. A study on agriculture university students’ perception towards online education during this pandemic by using content analysis found that flexibility and convenience of online classes make it an attractive option, whereas 60% of the respondents said it is

less effective when compared with the face-to-face classes. It has also highlighted the issue of the digital divide and inequalities in obtaining internet connection that creates a problem for several students. Online education has created an enormous shock for both teachers and students as it affected both teachers’ productivity and students’ learning. 

           The biggest challenge faced by teachers was transforming teaching material into digital format at a short notice and it was difficult to keep away students from other social network

sites during the online classes. Students are from different socio-economic backgrounds and they faced problems in access to laptops or mobiles and connectivity issues. The MBBS students’ survey on online learning conducted by the institution revealed that students preferred online classes to maintain their academic interest during the pandemic. In addition, they faced many challenges such as lack of socialization, technological-related

issues and eye-related problems, etc. A total of 79% of the students lost their interest in online classes due to internet connectivity issues when the classes went on; the majority of students favored a combined approach of learning post-COVID-19 outbreak.

       Another study used Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the barriers faced by university teachers in online teaching and assessment at home environment. They categorized barriers into four ways: 1. home environment barrier which includes lack of basic facilities, family interruption during teaching, conducting an assess-

ment; 2. institutions support barriers, which includes an absence of training, lack of clarity and direction, insufficient budget for purchasing advanced technologies; 3. technical diffi- culties faced by teachers which includes lack of technical infrastructure, slight awareness

of online teaching platforms, security concern; 4. teachers’ personal problem barrier such as negative attitude, low motivation for teaching, lack of technological knowledge become

restrictions in online teaching and assessment. University students felt that online courses are not comfortable when compared with the conventional method of teaching.

       They did not accept that online classes can replace traditional face-to-face classes. For teachers, online classes are challenging mainly for practical subjects due to improper infras-

tructure facilities and lack of emotional attachment with the students [20]. The pandemic is accompanied by isolation measures that have led students and teachers to confine to their

homes. It is stressful for teachers and students to learn and teach at isolated environment due to the pandemic. Male students were more dissatisfied with current online learning, whereas female students were more dissatisfied with the current home environment that created a negative impact on their education.

CONCLUSION

         

With the COVID-19 -a novel corona virus disease spreading across the globe, many countries have ordered closure of all educational institutes. Educational institutions have come to a functional standstill since they had to protect their students from viral exposures, which are likely in a highly socializing student community. In the beginning of February 2020, schools only in China and a few other affected countries were closed due to the proliferating contamination. However, by mid-March, nearly 75 countries have implemented or announced closure of educational institutions. As on 10th March, school and university closures globally due to the COVID-19 has left one in five students out of school. According to UNESCO, by the end of April 2020,186 countries have implemented nationwide closures, affecting about 73.8% of the total enrolled learners. Even though the lockdown and social distancing are the only ways to slowdown the spread of the COVID-19 by breaking the chain of transmission, closure of educational institutions has affected large number of students.