Education in the time of COVID -19 Pandemic By Hayfa Julinar Abdul Kareem

Schools are shut, and students are stranded at home, with extremely limited contact with friends and virtually no physical activity and lacking social component. ICSE, CBSE all known and recognized boards have postponed or cancelled examinations.

Institutions like IITs and IIMs have all closed their campuses and moved classes online and the future of many students hangs in balance!. Clearly, there is panic all around including the educators and students who are confused without knowing what do next and cannot reach up with respect to the educational objectives. Other than learning, the absence of schooling would also have a long-lasting effect on the health and nutrition of children. The role of the budget in the current situation as well as beyond the pandemic is very crucial to ensure inclusive education for all.

The lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have interrupted conventional schooling with nationwide school closures in most countries. While the educational community have made concerted efforts to maintain learning continuity during this period, children and students have had to rely more on their own resources to continue learning remotely through the Internet, television or radio. Teachers also had to adapt to new pedagogical concepts and modes of delivery of teaching, for which they may not have been trained.

In particular, learners in the most marginalised groups, who don’t have access to digital learning resources or lack the resilience and engagement to learn on their own, are at risk of falling behind.
As mentioned above, all major entrance examinations are postponed including engineering, medical, law, agriculture, fashion and designing courses, etc. This situation can be quite alarming mainly in private sector universities. Maybe some faculties and employees might face salary cuts, bonuses and increments which will also affect their daily lives.

The lockdown has generated uncertainty over the exam cycle. The Universities may face impact in terms of a slowdown in student internships and placements, lower fee collection that can create hurdles in managing the working capital. Student counselling operations are also affected. Several institutions may pause faculty hiring plans for existing vacancies which in turn affect quality and excellence. Structure of schooling and learning includes teaching and assessment methodologies and due to closure, it will be affected.

New technological methods has been integrated into the education system and taken to next level. It showed an important role in the lockdown period like study from home and work from home with new applications which has been a positive influence by the pandemic which was a forced transition. In India, some private schools could adopt online teaching methods. Low-income private and government school may not be able to adopt online teaching methods. And as a result, there will be completely shut down due to no access to e-learning solutions. In addition to the opportunities for learning, students will also miss their meals and may result in economic and social stress.

Higher education sectors are also disrupted which again pave an impact on the country’s economic future. Various students from India took admissions in abroad like the US, UK, Australia, China etc. And these countries are badly affected due to COVID-19. Maybe there is a possibility that students will not take admissions there in future and if the situation persists, in the long run then there will be a decline in the demand for international higher education also. Isn’t it!

There are numerous ways that the EDUCATION sector has affected and hence can’t ignore or take it unsound at this time of crisis, effective educational practice is needed for the capacity-building of young minds. Central and State Government must need to take some measures to ensure the overall progress in the country including job offers, new programmes assuring minimum wages, whether students are accessible to new approaches .The Educator , future life of students and the working staff must be taken into concern .Time waits for none, this tough time shall also pass. Be healthy and consistent ,make use of all the accessible resources to its extreme and excel .

By Hayfa Julinar Abdul Kareem

Till then stay safe, stay at home!