The Educational Sector has been affected adversely by COVID-19 globally. Different schools and colleges have started taking online classes. In India, different news channels are also arranging classes for Board Examinees, where eminent teachers are coming and teaching different topics and clearing doubts of students. Teachers are taking online classes on Zoom/Google Meet or recording their teaching videos and are uploading them on YouTube. But, often the students and teachers are not able to hear each other due to connectivity problems. This virtual process is helping students to continue their studies in this crisis period but this is not effective for all. A lot of students don’t have smartphones or internet connection in rural areas.
Again, a lot of students mainly within the age limit of 2-5 years are very excited to do online classes. Usually they play games on smartphones. Now they are using phones, laptops etc for study purpose, they can see their teachers even sitting at home and they are very eager to do online classes.
However, the online mode of communication is not safe at all. In fact, the Union Home Ministry of India had issued an advisory highlighting Zoom’s safety issues and how to tackle them.
Lockdown has paused the exam cycle. Different institutes conduct exams and entrances during this time period, but all those exams are postponed or are being conducted online. Many faculty and support staff of educational institutions may receive salary deductions and recruitment of new faculty and staff may be delayed. Closure of educational institutes has put forward numerous issues affecting access to education due to lack of classes, as well as broader socio-economic issues such as the technology divide between the rich and the poor in the Educational Sector.
We are determined to prevent the education system from losing its strength. The teachers and parents are doing their best to ensure that each student is getting enough support to continue their studies. Let’s hope that we overcome this crisis soon.
About the author: Sauro Dasgupta is pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a specialization in International Relations at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. He is interested in reading, writing, public speaking and his writings have been published in many important magazines, journals and newspapers.
