Impact Of COVID – 19 On The Educational System

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The author of this blog is Nishant Srivastav fourth-year BBA LLB(H) student at Institute Of Legal Studies, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Lucknow.

 Education is the most fundamental right which each and everyone has, as a human being and as a proud citizen of any particular nation. Article 45 of the Indian Constitution states that, “The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory Education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years[1].” This shall be done by both the State Governments and the Central Government as the word state as mentioned under Article 12 of  the Constitution Of India shall include, “The Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislatures of each of the states and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India.[2]”
Thus we can say that the education is the most fundamental part of any individual and the fundamental law of the land also provides the same to us for its intake. But in this season of COVID – 19 the students have been forced to sit in the their respective houses. This is the need of the hour as the virus is spreading day by day on  a large scale. Seeing this the Government has ordered Lockdown as the students comprise of about 60% of the country’s population. To stop the community spread of this life taking virus students are being kept at their houses. This has straight away affected on their education system. Government has promoted various apps for educational purposes but we ourselves know the bitter truth of it that how much those apps are effective in imparting education to the students. The poor network connectivity many times results in non-appearing of students in the e – classes. As just before the lockdown their was mid semester break of college students, who came home empty handed just to enjoy the festival. But now are being due this virus, resulting in no books. Will this e – books, online educational portals will ever be able to replace the impact provided by the textbooks? The answer is a big NO!.
Thus the lockdown has degraded the quality of education which was being provided by the normal classes.
Degradation Of  The Educational System Due To COVID – 19 Across The World:
At the end of February as alarm bells began to sound on the growing spread of the COVID-19 virus, the World Bank established a multi-sectoral global task force to support country response and coping measures[3]. At the time, only China and a handful of schools in other affected countries were enforcing social distancing through school closures[4].  A little over two weeks later, 120 countries have closed schools impacting almost a billion students across the globe that have seen their schools close for varied lengths of time[5].While school closures seem to present a logical solution to enforcing social distancing within communities, prolonged closures tend to have a disproportionately negative impact on the most vulnerable students[6].  They have fewer opportunities for learning at home, and their time out of school may present economic burdens for parents who may face challenges finding prolonged childcare, or even adequate food in the absence of school meals[7].More than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America have announced or implemented school and university closures[8].According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the closure of schools in 188 countries, affecting more than 1.5 billion students and 63 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide[9].
The lockdown has accelerated adoption of digital technology[10]. Business houses, educational institutes, analytics, computer, data management methods and online education solutions have been forced to work in tandem and improve in quality and delivery time to handle such situations[11]. This is an ideal time to experiment and deploy new tools to make education delivery meaningful to students who can’t go to campuses[12]. It’s a chance to be more efficient and productive while developing new and improved professional skills/knowledge through online learning and assessment[13].
It is also a fact that use of technology in education is resulting in different concepts in the system, for instance the move from teacher-centric education to student-centric education[14].We have been talking about virtual classrooms and various online tools today allow us to make the engagement between the teacher and students as close to a real, in classroom type experience, as possible[15]. Going forward, these tools can also make the teachers and parent meetings as well as staff/management meetings more time and cost saving while providing the necessary interactivity[16].
Drawbacks Of Virtual Classrooms:
But being a student it has my personal observation that the gist we use develop at the end of our normal classroom is not the same as that of e – classrooms. This means that we could grasp an ample amount of things when we use to go to our classrooms but this due to connectivity issues we do not absorb the same at the end of these virtual classrooms. This is not only my opinion but also the different colleagues studying with me. Due to network problems we are kept at mute so that our speaker could deliver the lectures properly. But the classrooms which used to be in our daily lives had a different effect on our mind body and souls.
The other aspect of these virtual classroom is that many students, close their cameras in the name of connectivity and are busy with their own stuffs. Means a teacher is arranging the notes anyhow to educate the students amid lockdown, but what the children are doing they trying to befool the teachers by giving the excuse of technical errors.Moreover, it has to noted that many of the Universities are taking their internal exams online basis. For those institutions who have a platform for organizing online tests under vigilance, for them it is ok. But many of the institutions across India or many other nations do not have a proper platform for online exams, so  they will give the questions on Google classroom app which have to be solved within certain period of time. These questions will be answered by students with the help of others cell phones and internet connections, hence resulting in open book examinations. This itself shows the sanctity of examinations has seen a downfall during these lockdowns.On thing also has to noted that students who are preparing for competitive examinations are also facing difficulties as recorded lectures come on their respective apps of their coaching, but what about doubt clearance, no such platforms are their which can sort their doubts. This has created a sense of demotivation among themselves.
Conclusions:
It can be said that these virtual modes of classroom has decreased the value of education. In this COVID 19 situation yes we don’t have any option rather than having such virtual classrooms, but it is a matter of outmost importance that if the Lockdown continues for a longer period of time, then the knowledge input of students shall be zero as the majority of students are not even trying to attend atleast an education webinar. Yes there are students who are trying to work on research papers, online courses, E – Seminars etc but of them are utilizing their time on web series of  Netfix, Amazon Prime etc.
Henceforth, not only economy but also the educational mechanism is suffering from serious downfall amid lockdown.

[1]The Constitution Of India, art. 45
[2] The Constitution Of India, art. 12
[4]ibid
[5]ibid
[6]ibid
[7]ibid
[8]Wang Yan, CGTN, How Will COVID – 19 impact Global Education? March 16 2020,https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-16/How-will-COVID-19-impact-global-education--OTZKvx8tbO/index.html
[9]Poonam Rana, Education Sector, My Story, May 12 2020,https://yourstory.com/mystory/impact-covid-19-education-sector
[10]Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, The Economic Times, Creating a paradigm shift in India’s Education System, April 15 2020, 21:12 p.m,  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/covid-19-creating-a-paradigm-shift-in-indias-education-system/
[11]ibid
[12]ibid
[13]Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, The Economic Times, Creating a paradigm shift in India’s Education System, April 15 2020, 21:12 p.m,  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/covid-19-creating-a-paradigm-shift-in-indias-education-system/
[14]ibid
[15]ibid
[16]ibid

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