What is the Impact of Covid-19 on the Education system
What is the impact of Covid-19 on the education sector? How has COVID-19 impacted higher education in India?
In India Impact of Covid-19 started in Mid of March. The Government of India has taken precautionary measures to stop the spread of COVID by the closure of schools, colleges and educational institutes as it will become the primary mode for spreading the infections if continued. As the days progressed, India entered into unlocking mode, keeping the educational institutes closed allowing only online mode of education. Thus affecting schools, colleges, teaching staff. Only private institutes could utilise online teaching programs. Small private and government schools have totally closed for not having access to online education. Low marginal income students had suffered a lot to access education in this pandemic time as they cannot afford smartphones or computers.
The pandemic has significantly disturbed higher education as well. overseas students had suffered a lot in this pandemic along with higher education students. Many Indian students enrol in universities overseas, in which countries affected by the pandemic are the USA, Australia, UK, China(MBBS), New Zealand, Canada. Many Indian students have now been barred from leaving these countries. If this continues, there will be a decline in overseas higher education.
COVID also showed an effect on on-campus recruitment as the selected are nervous and curious about, whether they will receive offer letters or not. But many companies have respected the offers of newly selected candidates and called for the joining. Unemployment had shot up from 8.4% in mid-March to 23% in early April and the urban unemployment rate to 30.9%.
This pandemic has changed the oral teaching model to digital teaching by using technology. E-learning has been implemented from Kg to Pg without any age limit. All students are already habituated to it. Govt has introduced DIKSHA platform for students to learn about any subject at any time.
How Covid-19 will impact students’ futures? How is COVID-19 impacting online education?
Students had been in the home for almost 7 months as on learning through mobiles and computers and missing physical educations thus affecting thinking abilities and problem-solving skills, digital education is good in terms of learning the subject visually but at the same time, physical classrooms also require for interaction with teachers and learning teamwork with friends.
students require physical activities and improve the management skills, analytical skills etc. Online education does not provide this as it is confined to the only small screen with less interaction with the teacher or tutor. And it’s affecting students’ eyes and straining them and creating other physiological problems.
Education disruption- The pandemic has led to the closure of all colleges and schools affecting 120 million children around the globe.
Loss of nutrition due to school closure- unable to access Mid Day meals thereby causing socio-economic problems among children and among parents of BPL families.
Unemployment- Recent passouts in India are fearing withdrawal of job offers from companies because of the current circumstances.
Isolation- COVID lockdown had Psychological impact on the students.
What are Initiatives taken to BOOST the education Sector during COVID-19?
Initiatives to boost Education Sector:
PM e-VIDYA will be launched, that strengthens all works linked to digital, on-air education, online education. Some of the initiatives are
- DIKSHA (one nation-one digital platform) portal provides quality e-content in school education for all the States and Union Territories.
- SAWAYAM online courses which telecasted through as Massive Online Open Courses(MOOCS) for school and higher education.
- IITPAL for IITJEE/NEET preparation.
- For the differently-abled study material is developed at Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website and YouTube Channels.
psychological support
The Man Darpan initiative will be launched for providing psychosocial support to students, teachers and families for mental health and emotional wellbeing through platforms like website, a toll-free helpline, counsellors, chat platforms, etc.
Distance Learning-
- E-learning in higher education by improving the open, distance and online education regulatory framework.
- Top universities in India had given permission to start online courses.
- An online component in conventional Universities and ODL programmes to be raised from the present 20% to 40%.
Basic Education:
A National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission to be launched to ensure that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy and this mission will cover the learning needs of nearly 4 crore children in the age group of 3 to 11 years.
