Patna: Our schools have to make up for lost time

PATNA: The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic resulting first in total and then partial lockdown for approximately two years jeopardized the education environment in many ways. Students, their parents and educators were at a loss to comprehend the shape of things to come, with everything coming to a standstill. It was a frightening situation, with almost no interaction with friends and relatives, pandemic toll figures mounting everyday and the normal life going for a toss in several other ways.
Amid all this, it was a great challenge to educate students sitting at home. This is when educators came up with the fantastic idea of distance education, now termed as online teaching, with the help of smart mobile phones and laptops. It was a drastic change from the traditional teaching methodology to an online system which involved a lot of time management, lesson planning besides having monetary implications.
Students had to be made accustomed to the new system. Teachers had to spend hours preparing a student-friendly lesson plan and chalking out a pedagogy keeping in mind the emotional and intelligence quotient of all. Educators, including principals, had to burn the midnight oil to ensure teachers acquired the best guidance and training, so that there was no wide gap between the classroom and online teaching. The teaching fraternity rose to the task, mastering the new system, thus paving the way for the students to acquire knowledge and keep themselves engaged. They were encouraged to complete their assignments and projects. Students were exuberant when online examinations were conducted and they got instant results.
However, despite all this, Covid-19 has caused an irreparable damage in the field of education. Disruptions to the education system have led to inequalities in learning. A large number of children have dropped out of schools, both public and private, due to various reasons, including the loss of jobs of their parents. A vast many couldn’t benefit from online teaching as they could not afford smartphones, laptops, computers or internet access. Some were forced to earn a livelihood, abandoning their studies and being exploited as child labourers. Lack of interaction with peers, non-participation in games and sports and living in isolation affected the mental state of some children, who turned erratic, wayward and inconsistent. Counselling of students is a must and we have been consistently trying to identify those in need of guidance and support.
The conduct of marks-based examinations posed a big hurdle, though there are options of MCQs, open-book tests, aptitude tests etc. The pandemic has given us some food for thought - that in an era of data science and innovation, educational assessment must change from marks-based evaluation to EQ or IQ-based systems.
We must ensure that the main thrust and objective of education is empowering and enabling students with diverse knowledge, skills and expertise that help to develop the skills of life. It should help to equip them with basic values and ethics in life to make them sharp and wise enough to deal with the prevailing situation.
The pandemic has taught us that there is no replacement to regular schooling. It cannot be substituted with any other methodology of teaching. Regular schooling helps students gain knowledge and acquire personal and professional benefits. As regular school students interact with teachers and classmates, view things from different perspectives and monitor their progress, they are at a greater advantage of acquiring practical knowledge. Their reading and writing, speaking and reasoning skills are acquired with the help of their interaction with teachers and classmates.
Lastly, since schools closure has had an adverse impact on learning across the education system, we have to make up for the lost time. Students will need sustained support to help them readjust and catch-up.
(The writer is principal of St Dominic Savio’s High School, Patna)