Schools education witnesses many challenges, changes in post-Covid situation

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, March 30:

The closure of schools during the last two years of Covid outbreak has paralysed the education system. The learning, mental health and overall development were at risk. Schools' education witnessed many challenges and changes in the post-Covid situation. The challenges included improving writing, creating interest in reading, bridging the gap, maintaining discipline. Lokmat Times spoke to some of the educationists and academicians on the challenges and changes in school education.

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Immense efforts being taken to fill the gap

Dr Ranjit Dass (Principal, Nath Valley School) said that Covid 19 affected every walk of life, especially education. It will take immense effort from Schools, Parents and Children to fill the gap.

“The are main challenges. The first is ‘Discipline’ which is related to simple things like getting up in the morning; completing tasks on time; preparing for tests and examinations etc. Many students have just lost the ability to follow routines.

The second is ‘Reading, Writing and Speaking. We are finding a remarkable decline in these important pedagogical areas in almost all students. And this was expected after two years of closure. Fortunately, online classes restricted these from a free fall to dangerous levels.

The third is ‘Emotional Stability. While the strong students have come out relatively unscathed, the more fragile ones have become vulnerable to low self-esteem and depression related to academic stress especially during times of tests and examinations.” he said

Dr Dass said that one big change that would happen is more usage of technology in regular classes,“ he added.

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Disengagement from school affects outcomes

Dr Afsar Khan, educationist and director of Winchester High School, said that the COVID-19 crisis had forced school closures in 188 countries, heavily disrupting the learning process of more than 1.7 billion children, youth, and their families. “During this time, distance-learning solutions were implemented to ensure education continuity, and much of the current debate focuses on how much students have learned during school closures. However, while this potential learning loss may only be temporary, other elements that happen in the absence of traditional schoolings, such as the curbing of educational aspirations or the disengagement from the school system, will have a long-term impact on student’s outcomes. This ‘hysteresis’ effect in education requires specific attention, and outlines a dual strategy to bring disengaged students back to school, and mitigate effectively student disengagement in case of future lockdowns,” he added.

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Gap between rich & poor increasing

Dr Sanjay Gaikwad, an educationist and author, said that COVID-19 had changed the education scenario thoroughly. Research says that 20 per cent of students don't have mobile phones.

“Hence, the distance between rich and poor students has increased. Many teachers are not acquainted with online education so teachers, as well as students unacquainted with online education, suffered the most. Apart from it, many physical problems have come out of online education,” he said

Dr Gaikwad said that while dealing with the portion in the school, teachers have to follow the mid-way method.

“But there is great inequality among students. Hence, in post-COVID education teachers will face problems with teaching methods. The students passed with good marks but what about the quality? As a result, to digest the current syllabus is the biggest post-Covid challenge for students,” he asserted.