Fariha Ali is a Field Correspondent for Know Disasters and also works as a GIS Associate in Genesis Ray Energy Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram.
“Smooth Sea do not make skillful Sailor”
Lightning struck on earth in the name of Novel CoronaVirus (COVID-19). Everyone was caught in this shock wave of lightning. Most misunderstood virus. We are in panic mode. There a lot of questions arise and among them, all one is how we can protect ourselves and our families from this deadly virus. Coronavirus is an infectious disease. This virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when we cough, sneeze, speak and breathe. Countries follow one first and foremost step to reduce the spreading rate: lockdown. Many lives got affected in 
this pandemic. Most families lose their loved ones. Different-Different working sectors were caught in this pandemic. They suffer a lot physically, mentally and especially capital-wise. 40% of the Working groups lost their job to lockdown. I don’t think any sector left in this pandemic without any suffering.
The education sector was not untouched by the Lockdown. Initially, a lockdown was announced for reducing the impact of the virus on children. Children of lower age, especially those going to study or studying in primary and primary higher levels are most vulnerable in this pandemic time.
The Education sector combines different stakeholders like students, teachers, and parents. The Indian Education system is divided into four levels: Primary, Upper Primary, Higher, and Higher secondary. According to UDISE, 2019-2020 report school enrollments in this pandemic time be shown in the figure:
The above and below figures show the Female and Male population enrolled in schooling statewise in numbers. This data reflects the number of attendees in schooling in respect of genders. Female schooling attendance is higher than Male schooling. 18 states shows female attendance higher (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Punjab, Kerala, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) and 12 states shows male attendees higher than Female (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi, Mizoram and Tripura).
In the bar graph we saw that in primary and upper primary student school enrollment increased compared to higher secondary and secondary. In India there are a total number of schools and teachers are shown in the table:
For scheduling to a normal class system at home and no one’s education effect in this pandemic period so, the online education system adopted. To normalize the education system so online systems come into force but every force has its impacts.Initially, the impact of this is negative, and when a person is used to it so it adapts to the change and learns more.
Studies and survey reports highlighted the student, teacher, and parent challenges during a pandemic and addressed the paradigm shift in their lifestyle.
• The School Children’s online and offline learning (SCHOOL) surveys titled Lock Out: Emergency report on school education”. A survey was conducted in the month of August 2021, at 15 state and union territories. On 20th Sept 2021 it was published.
- Highlights in the report 28% of children were studying regularly at the time of the survey and 37% were not studying at all.
- Students studying regularly 47%, not studying at all 19% and 42% unable to read and write.
• Dropout rates are higher during pandemic and post-pandemic.The expert estimated that children’s dropout rate be higher from 32.3 million. In pandemic Marginalized communities are disproportionately affected. As mentioned earlier, different sectors suffer a lot. Many lose their job and source of income. 84% suffered a loss in income. In the pre-pandemic period, 18 % of children engaged in labor work with their parents but the Post pandemic record shows 100% children labor. This is also one of the biggest reasons for the higher dropout rate.
• The Annual Status of Education report was released by the Pratham foundation in Nov 2021. Report on the children’s schooling status in the 5-11 age groups across rural India and their ability to do basic reading and arithmetic tasks. The survey was conducted on phone because of lockdown guidelines. A survey was conducted in rural areas of 581 districts across 25 state and union territories.
- Children enrolled in government school between 2018 and 2019 are higher; it rises from 64.3% to 65.8%. However, in 2021 enrollment goes up to 70.3%. Free facilities available to government schools show a change in enrollment. Migration was also one reason.
- Private school enrollment is down from 28.8% (2020) to 24.4% (2021). Because of the financial crunch, this phase of change was seen.
- Smartphone’s demand increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021. In rural areas, Smart phones are owned by fathers, but for children, education parents used to purchase smart phone and internet connectivity resources.
- Only a Quarter of children have access to some form of online education media, whether shared on WhatsApp or broadcast classes on the radio.
• In a survey conducted by Oxfam over 80% of parent’s reported that the education was not delivering during the lockdown period, lack of awareness among parents regarding alternate modes of education, or lack of digital devices to access those classes.
• A survey conducted by NCERT shows that all stakeholder experiences are difficult to learn and it is burdensome. Mathematics and Science subjects identified more difficult subjects to learn on online media.
• More than 9.6 million teachers face difficulty in this transition from traditional face-to-face learning to a digital mode of learning. NEP instructs teachers to change from the knowledge partner system to the edupreneurs system. First, we follow what the teacher taught us but in the edupreneurs system, the teacher teaches those perspectives what the student wants.
• 327 teacher deaths were reported, both on COVID duty and Election duty. As we are well aware of the number of teachers appointed to hold election duties. In this pandemic, teachers were appointed for door-to-door Surveys. This has a drastic impact on teacher communities and their families. The number could be more than not registered in the record who knows.
• Parents are concerned about their children’s learning and development especially for primary class and Upper primary class children. One of the parents always used to sit with their children during their classes, especially for new joiners. If both parents are working it is difficult to maintain classes for their children. Most parents are concerned about this. Communication Skills are not well developed and social gathering, meeting new people, and making new friends are not easy for children learning pandemic classes.
• Underprivileged parents are more concerned about their children’s education. Sometimes they are not able to purchase smart phones or internet connectivity resources, so this is also disturbing for children or parents too. In tribal areas schools are far away. If we suppose that they have smart phones but there are always some internet connectivity issues.
• The laptop has only 17% and Tablet 4% reported by India Lockdown Learning report by Vidyasaarathi by NSDL. Poor internet conditions are the biggest problem for 57% (students) while 31% struggle to focus and 12% find it difficult to get their doubts cleared. Learning Hours spent by the student, 1-4 hours (60%), 4-8 hours (80%),8-12 hours(8%). It’s a challenge for students and teachers to limit the screen hours.
• A study of Azim premJi Foundation states that 60 % of children don’t have any online classes for access forms.
The Central government and the State government come with a road map of ensuring a good education system among themselves. National Education Policy 2020 addresses five challenges in the education system and comes up with a solution for the future.
Teachers, students, and parents play an important role in the education system. During Pandemic each one faces different- different difficulties according to responsibilities. Physically, mentally and emotionally challenging phases we encounter in a pandemic. Teachers learn new innovations to teach their children and ICT improves skills to move and collaborate their knowledge and spread. Students adapt themselves to this challenge and start motivating themselves to learn new things, so they don’t waste parents and our time on unnecessary things. Children understand the family’s condition well and respect their parents for how far they go for their education. Parents got to know about their children’s learning styles.
“Education is not based only in the classroom; it’s a behavior of learning”
