View of IMPACT OF EDUCATION SECTOR AFTER PANDEMIC (COVID-19)

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VOLUME: 10, Special Issue 01, (IC-IESP-MULTI-2023) Paper id-IJIERM-X-I, January 2023 354 IMPACT OF EDUCATION SECTOR AFTER PANDEMIC (COVID-19)

Arvind Sakwar

(Asst. Prof. Economics), Govt. College Pithampur, Dist –Dhar, MP

Abstract- Covid 19 impacts on each part of life it affects the education system severely specially developing and underdeveloped countries as these countries have not adequate online means to impart the students for example. Lack of updated computer system, net connectivity, power supply, updated android mobile gadgets, want of handling of artificial intelligence techniques etc. During Pandemic, education system and pedagogy of teaching learning has been shifted from face-to-face teaching to online or digital teaching.

Suggestions are being given in proposed paper.

Keywords: Covid-19, Pandemic, Blended Learning ICT tools, Swayam portal MHRD.

1 INTRODUCTION

Pandemic “Corona virus” has a large family of viruses such as “SARS” (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and “MERS” (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). These two Corona viruses that led to outbreaks in 2002 and 2012 respectively. They caused severe symptoms but their transmission rates were lower as compared to Covid-19. The name given to the Novel Corona virus by WHO (World health Organization). The full form of Covid-19 is Corona Virus disease 2019. Corona Virus is highly updated virus it affects the breathing and respiratory system severely so that the victim might be died. WHO proclaimed Covid-19 as a pandemic that means this disease is rigorously spread the whole world. It is a fatal disease that transmits so rapidly, as a result the whole world has been caught. During this Health crisis the whole world is combating and trying to come over this havoc situation.

India is also facing the rigorous pandemic destruction. Covid 19 impacts on each part of life it affects the education system severely specially developing and underdeveloped countries as these countries have not adequate online means to impart the students for example.

Lack of updated computer system, net connectivity, power supply, updated android mobile gadgets, want of handling of artificial intelligence techniques etc. However, India presented tremendous efforts to cope up with such rigorous situation. In this paper the impacts of education sector after covid-19 in the field of humanities teaching learning have been elaborated.

1.1 Objectives

Objectives of studies are described under as follows: -

1. To study the challenges faced by educators and learners

2. To study about the level of academic performance of the students 3. To study regarding pedagogy carried out after pandemic

4. To get the information that traditional process of teaching learning can be replaced by virtual teaching learning process while teaching humanities.

5. To identify the availability of internet service in rural areas of India.

1.2 Methodology

Questions are framed to know the common and essential requirements that could help to understand the efficacy of current online teaching-learning in comparison with traditional in-class face-to-face teaching process. The relevant data has been collected from the secondary sources through Google forms online platform shared viz. social media.

1.3 Shifting of Pedagogy

COVID-19 pandemic has led to secure disruptions in normal life, including closure ofschools. It has impacted over 240 million children of the country who are enrolled inschools. Extended school closures may cause loss of learning. To mitigate the impactof the pandemic, schools will not only have to remodel and reimagine the way teachingand learning have happened so far, but will also need to introduce a suitable method ofdelivering quality education through a healthy mix of schooling at home and schooling

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VOLUME: 10, Special Issue 01, (IC-IESP-MULTI-2023) Paper id-IJIERM-X-I, January 2023 355

at school.Due to the lockdown across the country education sector hit severely as, the traditional way i.e, face-to-face teaching-learning was not possible. The online platform has become the feasible means for both the learners and educators. Though it brought some challenges and difficulties for learners and educators like not acquainted with online teaching, handling of smart phones, android phones, using of Zoom, google classroom, lack of knowledge of using if ICT tools. The online mode of teaching-learning and E-learning tools have made the learning process feasible in the midst of pandemic. During pandemic it seemed difficult of continuation of education system to impart qualitative education for the learners. The schooling from home was the better way to impart students so that the anxiety and stress of students could be removed. In India around 28 crores of primary, secondary and 8 crores students are affected. Govt of India intended to come out from the havoc situation so that the conventional educations system has been shifted to ICT based learning system.

2 MODES OF ONLINE/DIGITAL EDUCATION

Online Mode: When computer/smartphone with internet connectivity is available

Partially online Mode: Computer/smartphone is available but regular internet is not available Off line Mode: Where internet connectivity is not available or available with very less frequency- Television and Radio.

In this regard digital initiatives of MHRD were taken place they are under as follows:-

1. Diksha Portal:- This is an ICT based portal specially for secondary schools’ students.

It is developed under the guidance of CBSE board, NCERT and national boards of the entire country and the content has been created by around 250 teachers across the country in various languages. In this Portal blended teaching-learning process is provided through video and text content so that they can make notes of content or they can download the content as well. It is available for 1-12 class. It contains courses, quizzes and other for students and teacher.

2. Swayam Prabha TV Channel:- This mode of education is very much useful to those who have no access of school education. Around 32 channels are telecasted to meet the requirements of learners. The department of school education and literacy are tied up with this portal. To get detail information about Swayam Prabha can be received on website of Swayam Prabha.

3. e-Pathshala is an e-Learning app by NCERT for classes 1 to 12 in multiple languages.

The app includes houses books, videos, audio, etc. aimed at students, educators and parents in multiple languages. In this web portal NCERT has provided1886 audios, 2000 videos, 696 e-Books and 504 Flip Books for classes 1 to 12 in differentlanguages. Mobile AppavailableWebsite:http://epathshala.nic.in or http://epathshala.qov.in.

4. National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) portal Website:

http://nroer.qov.in/welcomeprovides a host of resources forstudents and teachers in multiple languages includingbooks, interactive modules and videos including a host of STEM- based games. Content is mapped to thecurriculum for classes 1-12, including aligned resourcesfor teachers. It has a total of 14527 files including 401collections, 2779 documents, 1345 interactive, 1664audios, 2586 images and 6153 videos on differentlanguages.

2.1 Higher Education

1. https://swayam.gov.inSwayam is the national online education platformhosting 1900 courses covering both school (classes 9 to12) and higher education (under graduate, post graduateprograms) in all subjects including engineering, humanities and social sciences, law and managementcourses. The unique feature is that, it is integrated withthe conventional education. Credit transfers are possible for SWAYAM courses (max. 20%).

2. Swayam Prabha https://swayamprabha.gov.in/ has 32 DTH TV channelstransmitting educational contents on 24 x 7 basis. These channels are

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available for viewing all across the countryusing DD Free Dish Set Top Box and Antenna. Thechannel schedule and other details are available in theportal. The channels cover both school education (classes 9 to 12) and higher education (undergraduate, postgraduate, engineering Out-of-school children, vocational courses and teacher training) in arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences andhumanities subjects, engineering, technology, law,medicine, agriculture. Website:

https://swayamprabha.gov.in/

3. e-PG Pathshala is for postgraduate students.Postgraduate students can access this platform for e-books, online courses and study materials during thislockdown period.

The importance of this platform isthat students can access these facilities without havinginternet for the wholeday.

Website:https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/

2.2 Positive Impact of COVID-19 on Education

Though the outbreak of COVID-19 has created many negativeimpacts on education, educational institutions of India haveaccepted the challenges and trying their best to provideseamless support services to the students during the pandemic. Indian education system got the opportunity for transformation from traditional system to a new era. The following points may be considered as the positive impacts: -

Move towards Blended Learning: COVID-19 hasaccelerated adoption ofdigital technologies to delivereducation. Educational institutions moved towardsblended mode of learning. It encouraged all teachers and students to become more technology savvy. New ways ofdelivery and assessments of learning opened immenseopportunities for a major transformation in the area ofcurriculum development and pedagogy. It also givesaccess to large pools of learners at a time.

1. Rise in use of Learning Management Systems: Use oflearning management systems by educational institutionsbecame a great demand. It opened a great opportunity forthe companies those have been developing andstrengthening learning management systems for use educational institutions.

2. Enhance the use of soft copy of learning material: Inlockdown situation students were not able to collect thehard copies of study materials and hence most of thestudents used of soft copies materials for reference.

3. Improvement in collaborative work- There is a newopportunity where collaborative teaching and learningcan take on new forms. Collaborations can also happenamong faculty/teachers across the world to benefit from each other (Misra, 2020).

4. Rise in online meetings- The pandemic has created amassive rise in teleconferencing, virtual meetings, webinars and e-conferencing opportunities

5. Enhanced Digital Literacy: The pandemic situationinduced people to learn and use digital technology andresulted in increasing the digital literacyImproved the use of electronic media for sharinginformation: Learning materials are shared among thestudents easily and the related queries are resolvedthrough e-mail, SMS, phone calls and using different social Medias like WhatsApp or Facebook.

6. World-wide exposure: Educators and learners are gettingopportunities to interact with peers from around theworld. Learners adapted to an international community.

7. Better time management: Students are able to managetheir time more efficiently in online education during pandemics.

8. Demand for Open and Distance Learning (ODL): During the pandemic situation most of the studentspreferred ODL mode as it encourages self-learningproviding opportunities to learn from diverse resources and customized learning as per their needs.

3 NEGATIVE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON EDUCATION

Education sector has suffered a lot due to the outbreak ofCOVID-19. It has created many negative impacts oneducation and some of them are as pointed below:

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1. Educational activity Suspended: Classes have beensuspended and exams at different levels postponed.Different boards have already postponed the annual examinations and entrance tests. Admission process gotdelayed. Due to continuity in lockdown, student suffered loss of nearly 3 months of the full academic year of2020- 21 which is going to further deteriorate the situation of continuity in education and the as studentswould face much difficulty in resuming schooling again after a huge gap.

2. Impact on employment: Most of the recruitment gotpostponed due to COVID-19 Placements for studentsmay also be affected with companies delaying the onboard of students. Unemployment rate is expected to be increased due to this pandemic. In India, there is norecruitment in Govt. sector and fresh graduates fearwithdrawal of their job offers from private sectors because of the current situation. The Centre forMonitoring Indian Economy’s estimates onunemployment shot up from 8.4% in mid-March to 23%in early April and the urban unemployment rate to 30.9%

(Educationasia.in). When the unemployment increasesthen the education gradually decreases as people strugglefor food rather than education.

3. Inappropriate knowledge of teachers/students for online education-Not all teachers/students are good at it or at least not allof them were ready for this sudden transition from face-to-face learning to online learning. Most of the teachers arejust conducting lectures on video platforms such asZoom, Google meet etc. which may not be real onlinelearning without any dedicated online learning platform.

4. Increased responsibility of parents to educate theirchildren: Some educated parents are able to guide butsome may not have the adequate level of educationneeded to teach children in the house.

5. Loss of nutrition due to school closure: Mid-day mealsis a school meal programme of the Government ofIndia which is designed to provide betterthe nutritional food to school-age children nationwide. The closure of schools has serious implications on thedaily nutrition ofstudents as the mid-day meal schemeshave temporarily been shut. Various studies havepointed out that mid-day meals are also animportantcontributing factor for increased enrolment in the schools.

6. Enhance gap between rich and poor students: As many students have limitedor no internet access and many students may not be ableto afford computer, laptop or supporting mobile phonesin their homes, online teaching-learning may create adigital divide among students. The lockdown has hit thepoor students very hard in India as most of them areunable to explore online learning according to variousreports. Thus, the online teaching-learning methodduring pandemic COVID-19 may enhance the gap between rich/poor and urban/rural.

7. Payment of Schools, College’s fee got delayed: Duringthis lockdown most of the parents will be facingthe unemployment situation so they may not be able topay the fee for that particular time periods which may affect the private institutes.

4 SUGGESTIONS

1. India should develop creative strategies to ensure that all children must have sustainable access to learning during pandemic COVID-19. The Indian policies must includevarious individuals from diverse backgrounds including remote regions, marginalised and minority groups for effective delivery.

2. Immediate measures are required to lessen the effects of the pandemic on job offers, internship programs, and research projects.

3. Many online learning platforms offer multipleprogrammes on the same subjects with different levels ofcertifications, methodology and assessment parameters.So, the quality of programmes may differ across differentonline learning platforms. Therefore, establishment ofquality assurance mechanisms and quality benchmark foronline learning programmes must be developed and offered by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Indiakeeping in view of rapid growth of the online learning platforms

4. Across the globe, Indian traditional knowledge is wellknown for its scientific innovations, values and benefitsto develop sustainable technologies and medicines

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andthis knowledge systems in different fields should be integrated with a present-day mainstream higher education system.

5. Govt and educational institutes should plan to continuethe educational activities maintaining social distancing. 30-40% students and teachers may attend schools/

colleges in two shifts per day to carry oneducational activities by obeying guidelines for COVID-19.

6. At current times, access to technology and internet is anurgent requirement. So, the digital capabilities and therequired infrastructure must reach to the remotest andpoorest communities to facilitate the students to continuetheir education during the pandemics. There is a need todeploy public funds to fix the internet gap and ensurethat students continue to learn digitally. The stategovernments/private organisations should come up withideas to address this issue of digital education.

7. Some significant issues associated with distance learningstrategies like the availability and access to digitaldevices with internet connectivity, the need for safelearning spaces, creating capabilities for teachers,families and students to operate and navigate digitaldevices, and engaging lesson plans for disabled studentsand other marginalised groups should be addressed byGovt. and the stakeholders.

5 CONCLUSION

COVID-19 has impacted immensely to the education sector ofIndia. Though it has created many challenges, variousopportunities are also evolved. The Indian Govt. and different stakeholders of education have explored the possibility ofadoption of differentdigital technologies to cope up with the present crisis ofCOVID-19. India is not fully equipped to make educationreach all corners of the nation via digital platforms. Thestudents who aren’t privileged like the others will suffer due tothe present choice of digital platforms. But universities and thegovernment of India are relentlessly trying to come up with asolution to resolve this problem. The priority should be toutilise digital technology to create an advantageous position formillions of young students in India. The concept of “work from home” hasgreater relevance in such pandemic situation to reduce spreadof COVID-19. India should develop creative strategies toensure that all children must have sustainable access tolearning during pandemic COVID-19. The Indian policiesmust include various individuals from diverse backgroundsincluding remote regions, marginalised and minority groupsfor effective delivery of education. As online practice isbenefitting the students immensely, it should be continuedafter the lockdown. The need is there to do more practice on use of digital or online teaching with great deal of accuracy.

REFERENCES

1. Ministry of Human resources

2. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2347631120983481

3. https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/education/covid-19-pandemic-impact-and- strategies-for-education-sector-in-india/75173099

4. https://osf.io

5. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/pragyata-guidelines_0.pdf 6. www.education.gov.in

7. https://ncert.nic.in 8. www.unesco.org.in