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DIGITAL EDUCATION DURING COVID-19 IN INDIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGESDr. Rajesh Kumar
Department of Physics, Government Degree College, Nanauta, Saharanpur (U.P.)
Abstract - Education is very important in any individual’s life which leads to immense contribution to the development of a nation. In recent times we can take education as a witness for revolutionary changes. All this happens because of drastic internet or digital revolutions in last 20-30 years across the globe. Development of smartphones , Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning(ML) and user friendly Apps making everyone’s life easy.
In traditional way of teaching, educators and students used to interact or discuss in front of a blackboard without any visual presentation of any topic in class. But thanks to digital technology which makes classroom studies more effective and fun based activity. We already know that audio-video representation of anything accelerates the cognitive power of student’s brain. In India, from last few years lots of schools and colleges are adopting new way of teachings in their classroom like they are using projectors to explain things, they are also implementing google classroom to manage classroom activity like assignment submission, attendance record, notes, quizs etc. Now a days, we all are going through tough days which is COVID-19 pandemic and all schools and colleges are shut down to curb the spread of corona virus and we can’t stop the learning process so we have just one option to adopt digital technology to continue take classes, and deliver good quality of education through the internet. But here comes the question, Is digital education inclusive for all class/gender/caste of students?. How can we measure that all are getting equal digital education? The purpose of this research paper is to give answers of some questions which can raise some societal issues and challenges when it comes to providing digitally transformed education to all students.
Keywords: Digital Education, Online Education, COVID-19, Issues, Challenges.
1 INTRODUCTION
Digital education means providing education to the masses with the support of technology and one of the major impact of COVID-19 apart from economic turbulence is highly dependence on the internet. Owing to this pandemic, education sector is in scrape at the moment. Schools and colleges are shut down and most probably they will remain shut down through 2020 due to increase in number of cases of corona virus. This could even extend to 2021. In this situation the only way to continue learning process is taking help of technology. Owing to the steady economic growth and globalisation, education in India is no longer just a teacher talking to a bunch of students in a classroom. With more than 370 million internet users and hundreds of local as well as global business tycoons willing to invest in the future of education, online education in India has picked up pace. In fact, the e- learning market in the country is estimated to be worth more than $3 billion. India is now the third largest online market for education in the world.
This enables people to take better advantage of the resources available online. We have more than 1 million registered schools and 18,000 higher education institutions. However, 4 percent of children never start school, 58 percent don’t complete primary schools, 90 percent don’t complete secondary school and only 10 percent go on to college. What is going to happen to the 90 percent? This is where start-ups like Khan Academy enter the market with meticulously curate content, even in Indian languages, based on NCERT textbooks. In fact, online education helps people get access to a world-class learning experience when traditional higher education is simply not possible due to financial or personal constraints. Some may also suffer from physical or mental disabilities that make learning in a classroom impossible. For these students, online courses, specialisations and degree programs can offer an incredible opportunity to continue their education and build careers for themselves. These days, employers look for more than just
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the basic skill set in their employees, theylook for a long-term relationship with the organisation. Often, appraisals and promotions are awarded on the basis of rescaling. This is where companies like Embibe the picture with their courses for mid-level professionals. Similarly, UpGrad, which was launched in July 2015, also aims to create a flexible, industry-relevant learning experience for professionals. Alumni from respected business schools like IIT, Wharton, and UCLA also participated in this education revolution with their own venture called Slide Rule, through which they claim to help people discover the best online courses available in every subject. Digital education can act as rescue of the cause of the education. In any digital education there are four components much needed to every student or educator:
1. Internet Access like 3G, 4G, broadband etc.
2. The Content like Videos, Notes, Live classes etc.
3. The Platform like YouTube, G- Classroom or any software or App.
4. The Distribution Infrastructure like Smart sphones, iPad, laptops etc.
2 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIGITAL EDUCATION AND THE CLASS ROOM EDUCATION
Gone are those days when classroom training was restricted to textbook learning, teachers using the blackboard to explain things and students writing down notes in copies. The traditional teacher- centered methods of teaching and task- based approaches to learning focused more on making notes and memorization.
However, it’s no more chalk and talk in most schools. Classroom teaching has become more and more interactive nowadays with the use of digital methods such as PPTs, video presentations, e- learning methods, practical demos, online training and other digital methods or platforms.
2.1 Advantages of Digital Classroom:
This is an efficient method of presenting a large volume of study material to students.
It is a personal, face-to-face type of training.
Everyone gets the same information at the same time.
It is cost-effective.
2.2 Disadvantages of Digital Classroom:
Sometimes it is not interactive.
Success of the lectures depends on the effectiveness of the teacher.
More of memorising and mugging up for the students, instead of enhancing their metal skills and abilities.
Time taking.
3 ISSUES OF DIGITAL EDUCATION The issues that have observed while conducting online classes-
Access: The biggest issue of online classes is with regard to accessibility.
According to a report generated in May, 2020, the total number of internet users in India is 56.45 crores (Diwanji, 2020) while its population is approximately 138crores. Hence, it can be inferred that almost two-third of its population is still deprived of internet connection. Under such circumstances, whether all students enrolled at various levels will have access to online education is a big question.
Technological Infrastructure: A survey conducted by QS I Guage has revealed that among those ‘who used home broadband, over 3 pc faced cable cuts, 53 pc faced poor connectivity, 11.47 pc faced power issues and 32 pc faced signal issues. When it came to mobile hotspot, 40.18 pc faced poor connectivity, 3.19 pc faced power issues and 56.63 pc faced signal issues’ (QS I Guage, 2020). Under such circumstances, it is doubtful whether all students will be able to get good internet connectivity which will enable them to log in for online classes.
On the other hand, there is also a lack of consensus with regard to the type of platform to be used for conducting online classes. During lockdown, the teachers made use of the barest technological support available to conduct sessions.
Very few academic institutes in India at that time had the paid version of such digital platform which allowed seamless streaming of classes. As a result, the quality of such online sessions was not up to the mark while failing to engage students for a longer period of time.
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Content: Incidentally, the presentcurriculum has never been designed to be integrated with technology. Consequently, a teacher finds it difficult to adapt course content to make it digital-friendly. On the other hand, teachers have not been trained to generate digital content. As a result, they also struggle to create content which is sufficient enough to be uploaded online.
Limited resources: Not all members of a family in India have their own devices through which the internet can be accessed. Devices like laptops or computers or smart phones are shared resources in most of the families. As a result, in a family having more than one child, not every child will have equal availability of such device. Factors like need, age, gender, intelligence, etc.
determine which child gets the access to the device on the priority basis.
4 CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL EDUCATION:
Is Digital education creating inequalities in society?
Gender Inequality In Digital Education:
In simple word it is gender digital divide, as per the data collected from various websites or organizations it shows only 28
% of female in rural and 32 % of female in urban haveaccess to internet in India so without equal access to internet and technology , girls and women will not able to participate in digital education because as above we have discussed internet access is one of the key component for online education.
Caste based Inequality in Digital Education : As per the data , total 77.8 % of Schedules Tribes and 69.4 % of Scheduled Caste are enrolled in government institutions it means higher percentage of deprived groups are dependent on government sources for education as it is much affordable than 3 private. It clearly shows that online education will put extra financial burden on the students and their families and definitely these students will be deprived of digital education.
Educational Inequality: According to the survey , 66 % of India’s population lives in villages and out of that only 15 % of rural households have access to internet while in urban households proportion rises to
42 %. In fact only 7 % OF all households with members aged between 5 & 24 have both computer and internet connection.
Among poorest 20 % households, only 2.5
% have access to a computer and 8.8 % to internet. In case of top 20 % households, the data rises to 27.6 % in computing facility and 50.5 % in internet facilities.
From the above discussion, It is evident that digital divide is present across class, gender , region or place of residence.
Is India prepared for Online Education?
Lack of proper study environment:
According to census, around 74% of household in rural and 64 % of household in urban India with three or members have dwellings with two rooms. In such situation how can student will avail education in undisturbed environment is a huge concern.
Lack of Good Internet speed: When we speak the term online education, it is all about interaction between instructor and student via video calls, video lectures and these things needs high- speed internet with stability.
Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad is in the top 5 cities having fastest 4G as well as broadband speed whereas Bihar’s Patna and Nagpur, Jaipur like cities lies in bottom five. In J & K students are protesting to give them access to the 4G.
Non-availability of Digitally Trained Instructors: One of the major barrier in rural areas in applying technology in education is the lack of knowledge and skills. In some of the academic institutions in rural areas, teachers are not even interested in online education, according to them they can deliver lots of information with the method of chalk and talk in blackboard room..They are very reluctant to get online education training.
Insufficient Funds: In developing country like India, the application of digital technology in education system is very huge and difficult task because it requires sufficient amount of funds and infrastructure. Because in digitally transformed education there is effective and efficient usage of software and hardware available in the market.
Lack of Physical development of students: In traditional way learning means going schools and colleges
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students were able to participate in extra-curricular activities like in sports, music etc but when online education started due to lack of proper schedule students are just sitting in front of laptop or smart phone and not able to participate in sports like activity.
Lack of Proper Policy: In recent time
government announced the
implementation of NEP (National Education Policy) 2020, but government again didn’t focused on online education in this policy. Digital education is all about appropriate platforms, technology, tools, interactivity, curation and many more. Unfortunately we lack a proper policy on these things.
5 CONCLUSION
Indian Education sector is accelerating since last 10 years and helped the nation to make it knowledge heaven.
Government also took good decisions in last 10 years like establishment of NPTEL (Video lectures by IITs/IISc/IIMs),new IITs/IIMs in different states as well as promise of increment of budget for education in upcoming NEP 2020. But above study clearly shows us that india need very good infrastructure for digital education. This will leads to heavy increment in investment in infrastructure for education sector as well as democratic governance. It would be premature to state that online classes should become a
new way of teaching-learning process.
Online sessions may be used to complement classroom teaching but cannot be used to replace classroom teaching completely in the way in which the technology enthusiasts want it to be a new normal post Covid-19 Pandemic unless a mechanism is devised to address the issues and challenges presented by the researchers.
REFERENCES
1. INDIA REPORT DIGITAL EDUCATION (June 2020): Remote Learning Initiatives across India, Department of School Education &
Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
2. NEP-2020 (National Education Policy 2020) July 29.2020.
3. www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/filesPDF/Webresults /IndiaReport-DigitalEducation-MHRD.
4. https://www.drishtiias.com/dily- updates/daily-news-editoria\ls/digital- education-in-india.
5. http://www.nkn.gov.in/en.
6. Diwanji, S. (May 26,2020): Number of internet users in India 2015-2023. Retrieved July 5, 2020, from Statista:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/255146 /number-ofinternet-users- in-india/
7. Ministry of HRD. ( April 10,2020): Retrieved July 5, 2020, from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/hrdministry/status/124 8609540653715456?lang=en.
8. Guage Q.S. (April 21,2020): Internet connectivity in India too slow and patchy to enable online teaching widely, says QS report.
Retrieved July 5, 2020, from Asian Age:
https://www.asianage.com/technology/in- other-news/210420/internetconnectivity-in- india-too-slow-and-patchy-to-enable-online- teaching-widely-says-qsreport.
