Challenges of Pandemic on Education

Introduction

Novel Coronavirus reached the world in 2019 and spread worldwide, affecting both individual and social life. The origin of the virus was first identified in Wuhan China. Due to this pandemic, schools, colleges, universities, and educational institutions were shut all across the world. This virus created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting more than 1 billion children in more than 190 countries. The governments of different countries took various tough steps at their level like lockdowns, staying at home, and crowd control strategies.

Research shows that lockdown weakens the traditional educational system and pushes the education institutions into online teaching infrastructure. Teachers and students started this journey with limited exposure and resources.

This writing evaluates the challenges of the pandemic on the teaching and learning process, some of the challenges are mentioned below:

Difficult to reach online education in rural areas: During the pandemic, in rural areas, it is difficult to receive online education due to the low connection of the network.

One student said “When pandemic started my teacher came to my home and said that classes will continue on the digital platform, so you have to attend the lectures through your mobile device. But due to low internet connectivity, the teacher’s voice was not audible. So I discontinued attending the classes.” This is a reality in most rural areas, especially those residing in hilly and/or forest terrains.

Lack of learning environment at home: Children in both rural and urban areas have faced difficulties in learning environments at home. Schools have peer groups that share and discuss ideas, but at home peer students were absent. Educated parents help their children by providing support to teach them at home, but the not-so-educated parents are helpless to provide guidance & support to teach their children.

Difficulties of adopting new methods by teachers and students: School teachers are experts in concrete tools like blackboards, chalks, and books. The pandemic provided new digital technology for innovatively disseminating education. The educators adopted the new methods and handled them like a pro to aid the students in the current situation of pandemics.

Challenges of preparation of E-learning tools: Before the pandemic teachers were used to the traditional methods of teaching but after the pandemic, they faced lots of difficulties to create online pedagogy tools for teaching. They faced problems of adaptation and adjustment with the e-learning tools.

Reduce productivity of the students: During pandemic government, health workers, and frontline workers worked hard on the ground according to the services they provided. Even education systems were trying to continue to provide quality education to students. But many of the students suffered from psychological problems like stress, anxiety, and insomnia that reduced their productivity in studies and further affected their overall health.

Effect on the student’s assessment: Pandemic affected both internal and external assessments of the students. Teachers were not used to creating a platform where students were to be assessed online. Students were being assessed by pen and paper mode before the pandemic, but after the pandemic students were asked to write an open book examination for their assessment.

Increased unstructured time spent online: Students spent maximum time online on the digital platform for studying. Increased and unstructured time spent online exposed students to potentially harmful and violent content as well as to a greater risk of cyberbullying.