Edn sector sees many challenges in COVID situation

By Mehboob Inamdar

Aurangabad, March 23:

All the educational institutes were shut down suddenly, with the implementation of a total lockdown from March 24, 2020, as a preventive measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. Schools and colleges adopted a new teaching and learning system 'online' on such a large scale to continue imparting knowledge. First time in history, the education sector saw a transition from offline to online.

Academicians and students feel that the transition was not easy. There were various challenges before teachers and students, including the availability of smartphones or computers, Internet connectivity or uninterrupted electricity supply, trained teachers, no monitoring system, and students' level of understanding.

Vaikhari Kulkarni, a senior teacher from Ellora English School, said that the sudden announcement of lockdown forced all stakeholder of education to use new technology for the teaching-learning process.

“There are options in online learning, like board sharing, image sharing, recording.

But, I feel that actual teaching with different education tools is very effective.

In an online system, one cannot judge how much a student understood a lesson,” she said.

Vaikhari said that online teaching is an option in the current situation, yet, it cannot be compared with actual learning.

Muhammed Munir, the head of School Development (Pearls Academy), said that prolonged school closures had highlighted training needs for both students and teachers.

“While students now need to learn how to work more independently, teachers need to receive more training in the effective use of technological tools required for quality teaching. The trained teachers were able to connect with their students with the use of technology,” he said.

Munir said that for teachers, the shift to online education has meant rethinking lesson plans to fit a very different format. “One has to redo all of the curriculum, adapt it for online mode and reconfigure most of the laboratory work since students don’t have the equipment at home. Thus, a teacher becomes a facilitator in the student's development, both as a member of their community and a member of the educational fraternity. The experience was encouraging, and it was a delight to see that teachers and students embraced this new way of teaching and learning,” he added.

Sohel Khan from a 10th class said that he was not prepared for online classes at the beginning.

“Teachers taught us, but all of the students did not get an opportunity to raise a question. Today, we are used to new technology and learning through it,” he added.