Covid-19 Pandemic in India and its Impact on Education– A Review

Abstract

Corona Virus pandemic known as COVID-19 probably was the world largest pandemic seen by the world. This pandemic has crippled and devasted most of the systems in the world as well as took nations economic condition in more radical and global than ever before. Covid-19 situation has severely impacted human\'s daily life and many sectors like: education systems, children’s right, all service sectors etc. But as a proverb ‘The show must go on’, this unfavourable situation turns down in to a positive outcome. All individuals and all service sectors from all over the world had reworked on the situation and changed accordingly. In this paper, we researched on many fields and its impact, as well as the new strategy to tackle with this pandemic.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The novel corona virus has disturbed the whole world in mid-March 2020 in all over the world but it was emerged from city named ‘Wuhan’, China in 2019. It was burst out very rapidly in no time to all many countries [3][4][5]., Later the WHO announced “Covid-19” as pandemic on 12th March, 2020 after spreading in many countries [4][5]. After that most of the Govts of many countries applied nationwide lock down, closed all the industries-offices, schools-colleges, malls-shops, temples, daily wadges workers and all most all the systems.

India has also gone for fully lockdown on 24th March, 2020 with few corona guidelines [3][6]. It has affected badly on many sectors at nationally and internationally. Human Being was facing the toughest time as they were fighting with this situation economically and Socially [ 1][4][5]. People from all over the world started research and experiment to fight with the situation and live life accordingly.[1][2]. This pandemic increases the demand of information technology-based services to fulfil their job at their home [1]. Novel corona virus has affected many sectors during lockdown. Due to this many activities have started online using internet with new condition, pattern and practices. All human being adjusted to the new working environments, students adopting the new learning methods, industries established new plan and setups, Govt. announced free food and shelter to helpless people etc. [6][7][8].

II. COVID-19 AND EDUCATION AT SCHOOL/COLLEGE LEVEL

As per the research done by UNESCO, over 290 million students (Schools+Colleges) education is affected by pandemic. This paper has presented a review of education sectors that affected very badly by covid-19, all the schools and colleges has closed but has adopted the newly situation very fast. With the use of internet and networks, the education in India habituate and converted to digitally. The Schools and Institutions has prepared themselves to delivered the lectures online with the help of internet, applications and electronic gadgets like laptops, mobile, PC, Video lectures etc. The Faculties and School teacher started to learn and teach the students efficiently.

The students also practiced slowly to adopt the new teaching style.[4][9]. Many online applications such as: Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, Duo etc. help to delivered the lectures and also recorded the videos. The e-online learning platforms that started by the Indian govt like EPATHSHALA, PG-epathashala, SWAYAM, SMILE, DIKSHA PORTAL, NDL, inflibinet, e-kalpa, e-shodhsindhu, e-NCERT books plays a vital role in the education system, that helped the students to learn and understand the concepts online [4][6][10][11][12].

There are many different approaches such as pedagogy, learning methods, moodle, Mooc, Presentations, e-video library for the different age of students to learn online. They can submit their assignments digital on many e-platforms and also give the exam, assignments and quizzes. [13][14].

III. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF E-LEARNING

E-Learning improved the quality of education in India for coming years. It is very interesting, effective and better than old teaching methods. E-learning has no map boundaries, no time constraints, cheaper and one-to one interaction with students and of course time saving. [4][5]

Now Education institute has started mix mode of lecture delivered and notes are available in e-form. The educational institutes used e-platforms to delivered webinars, e-presentation, e-conferences to provide knowledge to the students. Many e-libraries helps the students to keep up to date in education system in this pandemic. Faculties and school teachers adopted and improved their teaching skills towards innovated teaching environment. [10][11][13]

Covid-19 has generated many challenges towards education. Many issues are faced by the students and teachers.[5][10]. Many schools and colleges have stopped classes and postponed the exams. Entrance exam also postponed and cancelled in many institutes; result has also delayed. Mass promotion has given to all students. [4][13]. 

At the starting phase teachers were not ready for online lectures, they faced many problems like internet connection failure, lack of homely environment, gadgets, platforms etc. Many parents are not ready to adopt these new changes because of financial condition or no proper resource of them.

They cannot afford electronics gadgets, internet connections and not having knowledge of technology. Due to this many students have dropped out form the schools and college.  Some of schools and college have not proper infrastructure, communications, faculties to delivered the content. Students sometimes diverted by the online games and social platform, No writing work for them, No exam etc. [4] [5][10][11][13]

IV. MODULES USES IN E-LEARNING IN COVID-19

E-learning environment has many impact factors like policy and condition of schools, Syllabus policy, society environment, govt. rules and condition etc. Education sector has developed many techniques to make a proper bound with their students in this pandemic by using different types of activities. These activities have created very good impacts on the students to keep themselves up to date [1][3][14][15]. Some of them are listed below:

A. New Learning Methods

This pandemic changes a lot in the learning methods by spontaneous or casual way. Learn and teach are two main factors in the education fields. To learn a new method, teachers has changed their mindset, understand new logic, patterns, delivering lecture concepts. It helped teacher and students to adopted easily the new education policies and changes. Video lecture, face to face communications, e-notes, MCQ quizzes, E-portals helped very much to adopt the new learning methods. It opened up the gates of future educations system. [18][19][20]

B. Non-Academics Activities

 A various activity also done online for the students to break down the impact of corona. These activities are extra from their school/college curriculum. These activities like quize, seminars, cultural programs, webinar, talks, in time project etc. play an important role in students’ career and enhanced their individuality at home and lock down period [3][16][21]. Different types of non-academic’s programs are designed and started in every level of schools and colleges; it changed the unfavourable condition into favourable one in education sectors.[3][15][22]

C. Evaluation

To conduct the exam on time, examine the papers and evaluate the result for the students is the one of the most barrier in this crucial time. So, new techniques come in favour of the students and teachers are: online exam, self-assessment, quizzes, upload e-copy of papers, Google forms and most useful moodle platform, to examine the performance meter of the students on each stage.[3][18][23][24]

D. College and Administration

This pandemic time, the school/college administration or management has designed new curriculum, policies and rules in favour of students and teachers that directly or indirectly impact on education system without affected the older one. College and school management has followed the rules and understand the students’ conditions (fees, electronic gadgets, internet etc.) [3][25].

E. Teacher, Student and Online Class

“Teacher is a person whose job is to teach in schools or colleges.”  Statement by the Cambridge Dictionary. [3][26]. Many researchers has done study on teachers and students for their perception about the new education system and the impact on them. Teachers and students both of them have adopted this new learning environments very quickly [29]. Teachers has motivated the students for their betterment and development in their respective fields.  The students have also done a fantabulous job to acquainted the new education policies and system. [3][26][29]. Online class is the new invention in education system where teacher/students can learn together and participated in different courses. Online class works with internet, by attending as an individual. In the pandemic time it is mandatory to attend the online class in each and every schools/college, and now it is an inevitable part of education system [3][31][32]. Online class was the only way to conducted the class in the covid-19 period, but some time it was not favourable condition to the few of students due to internet connection, laptops, homely environment etc. [3] [30].

V. SURVEY STUDY- “ONLINE EDUCATION DURING COVID-19

Many of the researcher did the different type of survey to prove the online teaching in the pandemic is the best option or not, what is the impact of this concept on student, parents, the school/college management etc.

The researchers [4] has presented their work in the form of survey, how online teaching influenced on the students and their health taking responses from teachers, students and their parents. They found from the study; the online education is the only option to continue the education. It also helpful stop the corona virus spreading among the students. Another researcher [10] has presented their work and stated that covid-19 pandemic affected the education flow and learning activities of the students as no physical classroom, no social gathering is allowed that time. At the one side parents’ ignorance towards online education created more difficulty to teach and co-operated with students special the kindergarten children. Secondly the unavailability of homely environment, electronic gadgets, internet, unawareness of parents, financial condition etc. is the main factors that affected the education. Another researcher [3] has also survey and discussed the many parameters that affected the student’s education, school/college management, teachers’ perception and parents. It resulted that all parameters have given a positive response towards the teachers teaching methods and college education management in terms of online delivering of lectures, e-education and evaluation of the students’ performance in this pandemic.

Here the author has taken 100 responses from the students, summarized the work and presented in a graphical chart.

Conclusion

Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on our life and education system badly. Pandemic has changed our mindset towards the direction of education in schools, college and primary and pre-primary level. During covid-19, schools and college has prepared themselves to continue the education through online classes by using ICT tools and techniques, to make it more interesting. The educational institute prepare their teachers and trained them, use new pedagogy, and developed new e-platform for these new challenges. Many researchers, academician, expert has started to learn, create and innovate new learning method to make online study more interesting. So, this will help and prepare us in the future for this type of pandemic. At the end, online classes and assessment are the best option during the covid-19 pandemic to continue the education sector and prepare the students for further studies. As per studies and the discussion, the author has suggested that the colleges and school management should not stopped the online classes forever, it should be continued for an hour daily because it helps the students to prepare for future crisis.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Asst. Prof. Bharti Shah. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.