IMPACT OF COVID ON EDUCATION By Ankita V Kumar
by  Ankita V Kumar, B.ed MDU Rohtak

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying "change is the only constant in life." This famous line holds more significance as we’ve now stepped into the post-covid phase. Everything in human life has been impacted from jobs to lifestyle and even the way we shop. The biggest revolution has been experienced by those in the education sector, be it the students or the teachers. With this essay, I would like to throw some light on the impact of this profound change in our education system. To begin with, educationalists had no choice but to run from pillar to post just as the pandemic hit us. Overnight teachers were asked to switch from offline to online mode of teaching. The videos circulating around 50+-year-old teachers delivering remote lessons were inspiring and the efforts made by them were laudable. Speaking from my own experience I had undertaken training from the Cambridge Assessment English in a completely online mode and to be honest it is only safe to say that the amount of learning that happened via online mode did help me in becoming digitally literate which is also an essential 21st-century life skill or a survival skill so to say. Being an educationalist, I strongly believe the remote learning method post-covid has only blurred the boundaries among people and has made learning easier. A student sitting in South Africa can connect with his teacher in France and learn the language using the video conferencing method and achieve an authentic and inclusive learning experience. Not only this but the teachers can also expand their horizons by educating students coming from various age groups and developing relevant skills in this ever-changing world. Secondly, I reckon that dozens of ed-tech start-ups have come into existence in the year 2020, which provided a fair chance to the stakeholders (students and parents) to compare and choose from various teaching institutions based on their teaching faculty, reputation, reviews, and of course the course fee. The whole digital revolution has now as a result created better employment opportunities for everyone especially, the women as they can have a better work-life balance. However, it had also created competition among various ed-tech start-ups to provide a satisfactory experience to the learners as the customer hold higher expectations which lead to an urgency among the educationalists and institutions to appoint more diligent and skilled teachers, who held enough expertise and subject-matter knowledge. Finally, I would like to comment on the other side of the pasture highlighting the potential challenges that had occured and continue to prevail. Even though the benefits of the digital breakthrough outperform the disadvantages we cannot turn a blind eye to the problems that require immediate attention. As a society, we need to ensure and work towards making the learning experience more inclusive for the underprivileged learners especially the primary education keeping in mind the aim to achieve the universalization of primary education in our educational policy. The right to education demands education for all and hence the unavailability of digital resources shall not impede learning. The physical learning space i.e. school. College etc. are indispensable therefore, hybrid learning should be adopted by institutions to facilitate practical learning or learning by doing. To conclude, I would like to end this article by saying- it has been rightly said that “the pandemic presents a real challenge and a real responsibility. These ideas invite debate, engagement, and action by governments, international organizations, civil society, educational professionals, as well as learners and stakeholders at all levels”. However, in my opinion, it can be achieved as long as we are committed to ensuring that every individual, irrespective of their social, economic, physical, psychological, or racial background has access to education.

PUBLISHED ON SUNDAY 19th February, 2023
Reviewed by     Physical Science Society