A year ago, parents were urging their children to stay away from their phones and computer screens. The lockdow, which was imposed after the pandemic began to spread, changed the face of education and the way children are taught. Suddenly, parents were scrambling to get their hands on laptops, smartphones or any device that would allow their children to access online learning modules. Just as schools were opening their campuses to students, the second wave of COVID-19 is threatening to throw a spanner in the academic calendar.
While schools and parents have made a lot of investments on tools to make online learning effective, the results have not been desirable. Srinivas C., who works as a driver and has a son who studies in class five in a private CBSE-affiliated school in Bellandur said that his son had not picked up new skills, and had even forgotten what he learnt in his previous classes. “I worked hard and bought a smartphone worth ₹10,000 for his online classes, but he is not interested in online classes. I cannot blame him as it is easy to get distracted at home,” he said.
He added that teachers acknowledge that many students are in the same boat. “Making matters worse, Internet connectivity is a matter of concern and my son sometimes tends to miss out on a large chunk of classes,” he said.
Schools and college managements are doing everything they can to conduct bridge courses so that students can move on to the next grade, but COVID-19 second wave, has got everyone worried.
Digital divide
While a significant number of students in private institutions could get on to the Internet, many of their peers in government schools had no online classes.
Sanchitha S., a class nine student of a government school, said they had the Vidyagama programme at the beginning of the academic year which was stopped till January. “From October to January, we did not have an academic schedule and we just had to complete assignments and worksheets. I did not understand concepts and I only copied lessons from my textbook,” she said.
A study by Azim Premji University found that children not only missed out on the regular curricular learning they would have acquired had schools remained open, but were also ‘forgetting’ what they had learned in previous academic year.
Rishikesh B.S., associate professor, Azim Premji University said the impact on academics for the 2020-21 academic year was severe. “There is a need to do things differently in the coming academic year. One of the lessons the pandemic has taught us is that classes can continue amidst precautionary measures. Clamping down classes is not the solution. We can conduct classes with all protocols in place and heightened alertness,” he said, and added that school managements and teachers need to get out the old way of thinking and schools need to provide all their resources to ensure that students have access to learning in different ways.
(This is the third of a series on how the pandemic has affected the lives of people across sectors a year after the lockdown)