Every industry in the globe is seeing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This has a significant negative impact on both the Indian and global education
systems. It has imposed a global lockdown, having a highly negative impact on
students' lives. All educational activities were stopped in India as around 32
crore students left their current schools or universities.
The COVID-19 epidemic has shown us that change is unavoidable. It has acted as a
stimulus for educational institutions to develop and choose cutting-edge
platforms and methods. The education sector has been working to survive the
crises with a new strategy and digitising the difficulties to remove the
pandemic threat. This research paper has laid down some measures taken by Govt.
of India to provide flawless education in the country.
Both the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on education system has been
discussed and some fruitful suggestions are given to carry out educational
activities in more effective manner during this pandemic situation.
"What is education? Is it book learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even
that. The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under
control and become fruitful is called education." -
Swami Vivekananda
Introduction
The pandemic Covid-19 has spread over whole world and compelled the human
society to maintain social distancing. It has significantly disrupted the
education sector which is a critical determinant of a country's economic future.
February 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation ( proposed an official name of
the virus as COVID acronym for Coronavirus disease 2019.
It was first identified in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. First death by
COVID 19 was the 61-year old man in Wuhan, China 2020. WHO declared COVID-19 as
a pandemic on 2020. The first case of the COVID-19 pandemic reported on 30
January 2020 in the state of Kerala and the affected had a travel history from
Wuhan, China (Wikipedia). The first death due to COVID-19 was reported in India
on March 12, 2020.
It has affected more than 4.5 million peoples worldwide (WHO).[1] This pandemic
has caused the adverse impact on each and every sector in India whether its
Corporate , either it is educqtion .after seeing the increased cases of corona
in each and every part of India central government and state government decided
to close colleges, schools and universities Classes suspended and all
examinations of schools, colleges and universities including entrance tests were
postponed indefinitely.
Thus, the lockdown destroyed the schedules of every student. Though it is an
exceptional situation in the history of education, COVID 19 had created
opportunities to come out of the rigorous classroom teaching model to a new era
of digital model.
Concept Of Education
- What is Education:
WHAT IS EDUCATION? Education is an essential process in human development.
It is different from schooling. Schooling is just one of the ways in which
education is provided, whereas education deals with the total process of
human learning by which knowledge is imparted, faculties are trained and
different skills are developed. Education is also defined as the act or
process of educating or applying discipline on the mind or a process of
character training. It is a dynamic instrument of change. Education is
expected to affect or condition the social behaviour of the person being
educated.[2]
In English the term "Education" has been derived from two Latin words
Educare (Educere) and Educatum. "Educare" means to train or mould. It again
means to bring up or to lead out or to draw out, propulsion from inward to
outward. The term "Educatum" denotes the act of teaching. It throws light on
the principles and practice of teaching.
The term Educare or Educere mainly indicates development of the latent
faculties of the child. But child does not know these possibilities. It is
the educator or the teacher who can know these and take appropriate methods
to develop those powers.
In Hindi, the term "Siksha" has come from the Sanskrit word "Shash". "Shash"
means to discipline, to control, to order, to direct, to rule etc. Education
in the traditional sense means controlling or disciplining the behaviour of
an individual. In Sanskrit "Shiksha" is a particular branch of the Sutra
literature, which has six branches �Shiksh, Chhanda, Byakarana, Nirukta,
Jyotisha and Kalpa. The Sutra literature was designed to learn the Vedas.
Siksha denotes rules of pronunciation. There is another term in Sanskrit,
which throws light on the nature of education. It is "Vidya" which means
knowledge. The term "Vidya" has originated from "Bid" meaning knowledge.[3]
By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man's
body, mind and spirit. Mahatma Gandhi:
- The highest education is that which does not merely give us information
but makes our life in harmony with all existence. Rabindranath Tagore
- Education is something, which makes a man self-reliant and self-less. Rigveda
- Education is that whose end product is salvation. Upanishada
- There are four fundamental objectives of education according to John
Dewey. They are:
- Developing habits and skills of inquiry and observation;
- communicating effectively;
- cooperating with others; and
- living creatively.
E-Education & Its Effectiveness
E �education means teachers provide learning through electronic media that is by
using electronic gadgets for example laptop, personal computers, multi media
phones .
Unfortunately , educational institutes got closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
the government has been encouraging online education to achieve academic
continuity. Most high-end private and public institutions have made the switch
smoothly using online platforms such as Zoom, Google classrooms, Microsoft
teams, Facebook, wattsap, UTube etc..
While many still find it a difficult task.
The challenges of online education are multifaceted. It is time that we Indians,
as a society, understand the realms of online education � in India. As every
coin has 2 sides similarly E- Education has both pros and cons .
Positive Impact Of Covid 19 On E-Education Are As Follows:
- Online Education during this covid has given a ray of hope to teachers
and students to continue their educational activities.
- This system of education is trying to make youths more digitalized and
technology prone it wll further help them to be more and highly skilled in
technology
- Move towards Blended Learning: COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of
digital technologies to deliver education. Educational institutions moved
towards blended mode of learning. It encouraged all teachers and students to
become more technology savvy. New ways of delivery and assessments of
learning opened immense opportunities for a major transformation in the area
of curriculum development and pedagogy. It also gives access to large pools
of learners at a time.
- Enhance the use of soft copy of learning material
- Rise in online meetings
- Enhanced Digital Literacy
- Demand for Open and Distance Learning
- Improved the use of electronic media for sharing information
- Worldwide exposure
NEGATIVE IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON E EDUCATION:
- Educational activity Hampered:
Classes have been suspended and exams at
different levels postponed. Different boards have already postponed the annual
examinations and entrance tests. Admission process got delayed. Due to
continuity in lockdown, student suffered a loss of nearly 3 months of the full
academic year of 2020-21 which is going to further deteriorate the situation of
continuity in education.
- Impact on Employment:
Most of the recruitment got postponed due to COVID-19
Placements for students may also be affected with companies. For India, the
report estimates job loss for 4.1 million youth. Construction and agriculture
have witnessed the major job losses among seven key sectors," said the ILO-ADB
report, titled 'Tackling the COVID-19 youth employment crisis in Asia and the
Pacific'[4]
- Increased responsibility of parents to educate their wards:
Some educated
parents are able to guide but some may not have the adequate level of education
needed to teach children in the house
- Non Access to digital world:
As many students have limited or no internet
access and many students may not be able to afford computer, laptop or
supporting mobile phones in their homes, online teaching-learning may create a
digital divide among students. The lockdown has hit the poor students very hard
in India as most of them are unable to explore online learning according to
various reports.
- Delay in payment of fees:
During this lockdown most of the parents were facing the unemployment
situation so they were not able to pay the fee for that particular time
periods which affected the private institutes.
- Casual approach in learning process:
During this covid pandemic physical
education system converted into virtual education system because of which
students become non serious towards studies.
Initiatives of Govt. of India on education during Covid-19
- Diksha portal contains e-Learning content for students, teachers, and parents
aligned to the curriculum, including video lessons, worksheets, textbooks and
assessments. Under the guidance of its national boards of education (CBSE) and
NCERT, the content has been created by more than 250 teachers who teach in
multiple languages. The app is available to use offline. It has more than 80,000
e-Books for classes 1 to 12 created by CBSE, NCERT in multiple languages. The
contents can also be viewed through QR codes on textbooks.
- e-Pathshala is an e-Learning app by NCERT for classes 1 to 12 in multiple
languages. The app houses books, videos, audio, etc. aimed at students,
educators and parents in multiple languages including Hindi, Urdu, and English.
In this web portal NCERT has deployed 1886 audios, 2000 videos, 696 e-Books and
504 Flip Books for classes 1 to 12 in different languages.
- National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) portal provides a
host of resources for students and teachers in multiple languages including
books, interactive modules and videos including a host of STEM-based games.
Content is mapped to the curriculum for classes 1-12, including aligned
resources for teachers. It has a total of 14527 files including 401 collections,
2779 documents, 1345 interactive, 1664 audios, 2586 images and 6153 videos on
different languages.
- Swayam is the national online education platform hosting 1900 courses covering
both school (classes 9 to 12) and higher education (under graduate, post
graduate programs) in all subjects including engineering, humanities and social
sciences, law and management courses. The unique feature is that, it is
integrated with 12583 Pravat Kumar Jena, Impact of pandemic covid-19 on
education in India the conventional education. Credit transfers are possible for
SWAYAM courses
- Swayam Prabha has 32 DTH TV channels transmitting educational contents on 24 x
7 basis. These channels are available for viewing all across the country using
DD Free Dish Set Top Box and Antenna. The channel schedule and other details are
available in the portal. The channels cover both school education (classes 9 to
12) and higher education (undergraduate, postgraduate, engineering Out-of-school
children, vocational courses and teacher training) in arts, science, commerce,
performing arts, social sciences and humanities subjects, engineering,
technology, law, medicine, agriculture.
- e-PG Pathshala is for postgraduate students. Postgraduate students can access
this platform for ebooks, online courses and study materials during this
lockdown period. The importance of this platform is that students can access
these facilities without having internet for the whole day.
Suggestions:
- India should develop creative strategies to ensure that all children
must have sustainable access to learning during pandemic COVID-19.
- Central government should bring out more job opportunities for jobless
youths during this pandemic tom reduce unemployment rate
- More interesting and effective learning tools should be used by teachers
on e-learning platforms.
- At current times, access to technology and internet is an urgent
requirement. So, the digital capabilities and the required infrastructure
must reach to the remotest and poorest communities to facilitate the
students to continue their education during the pandemics.
Conclusion:
COVID-19 has impacted immensely to the education sector of India. Though it has
created many challenges, various opportunities are also evolved. The Indian
Govt. and different stakeholders of education have explored the possibility of
Open and Distance learning (ODL) by adopting different digital technologies to
cope up with the present crisis of COVID-19. India is not fully equipped to make
education reach all corners of the nation via digital platforms.
The students who aren't privileged like the others will suffer due to the
present choice of digital platforms. But universities and the government of
India are relentlessly trying to come up with a solution to resolve this
problem. The priority should be to utilise digital technology to create an
advantageous position for millions of young students in India.
It is need of the hour for the educational institutions to strengthen their
knowledge and Information Technology infrastructure to be ready for facing
COVID-19 like situations. India should develop creative strategies to ensure
that all children must have sustainable access to learning during pandemic
COVID-19. As online practice is benefitting the students immensely, it should be
continued after the lockdown.
End-Notes:
- sers/shikh/Downloads/ImpactCovid-19onEdnIJCRJuly2020.pdf
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361813544_BASIC_OF_EDUCATION_THE_MEANING_AND_SCOPE_OF_EDUCATION
-
https://sol.du.ac.in/solsite/Courses/UG/StudyMaterial/16/Part1/ED/English/SM-1.pdf
- conomictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/41-lakh-youth-lose-jobs-in-india-due-to-covid-19-pandemic-ilo-adb-report/articleshow/77613218.cms
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Award Winning Article Is Written By: Ms.Shikha Bhatnagar
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