EFFECT ON EDUCATION SYSTEM DUE TO COVID-19
The pandemic has immensely impacted all sectors of the country, for an instance agriculture, economic, health care and education etc. In March 2020 schools, colleges, and institutions across the whole world got closed. The education system in India as well as in other countries has affected badly, resulted in the loss to the students.
According to a report by UNESCO the ongoing pandemic has widely affected student community across the world. Around 32 crore students in India and 94 % of the students globally are affected. From kinder garden to the PhD every student is experiencing the alternating effects of COVID-19.
Nevertheless the lockdown across the whole wide world has affected every single of us in different ways. Pandemic has changed the method of teaching. Institutions have shifted from offline classrooms to online mode.
Technology has played a vital role in this difficult time. Whole World is getting technologically advance, like work from home, learn from home and what not. In India online education is not a piece of cake, there are various challenges.
Not only the students but also the teachers are facing hard time in online lectures. Applications like Google meet, zoom, Microsoft teams and WebEx are being used in India for teaching. Many teachers have been moulding themselves in learning to catch up with new world.
There are countless issues like the internet connections, lack of devices/ smartphones. World is going through an economic crisis, so it not feasible for everyone to purchase new devices for attending the classes.
The private and government schools with students with weaker sections are unable to continue online teaching. Students do not have proper medium to attend classes, hence technology became the barrier for students to learn.
Along with learning, loss in nutrition is observed, as mid-meals were provided by government to students. But now it’s temporarily disabled too as the schools are shut. It has implicated a major impact to poor people and led to the social as well as economic stress.
College examinations were postponed all over the country, which is a big shock for final year students. This postponement of exams has delayed there degree and wasted almost a year. They possible could have started earning by now, but they are forced to still wait for exams.
The uncertainty in the exams has led to the disturbance in the exam cycle and impacted the internships and placements; not only the colleges but also the government exams, competitive exams and entrance exams like NEET, JEE, CLAT etc. were rescheduled multiple times. The admission process is affected, and because of all this delay it really misbalanced the education system in India.
The school students were promoted without taking their exams and the board student’s result was declared on the bases of their exams taken before the lockdown. The unemployment level in India as per the centre of monitoring Indian economy reached 8% in March to 23.5% in April due to the pandemic, a sudden fall in the rate of employment.
Global employment opportunities also reduced for the students. But In spite of all this, the digital literacy has risen up in the lockdown, the massive rise in the webinars, online meetings and teleconferencing. Multiple online courses have been introduced for the students.
Many career websites of different fields have got active. They are organizing various online national and international competitions, quiz competitions, online internship opportunities etc. Although, India is a developing country and was not fully prepared to fight against a global pandemic.
Need of the hour is to develop the information technology infrastructure and the knowledge should be strengthen by different institutions. Every student must get an opportunity to learn and embrace their skills.
The access to proper network connections along with digital devices are the urgent requirement in the online mode of teaching during the pandemic. India needs to prepare itself for more situations like this, as being stable is indeed important. Moreover students need proper education to embrace the country.
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