Influence of Covid-19 on education

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an unexpected transformation of the education sector in India. The educational institutions all around the country were forced to shut down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, bringing forth these changes. Schools had to adopt alternative methods of teaching their students within a very short span of time, as digital learning became a significant and mandatory medium rather than a mere option. As this virtual education gradually unfolded, several online learning platforms also emerged in order to continue imparting education. These digital learning spaces started offering both free as well as paid learning resources to students of all classes, few examples being MS Teams, Google Meet and Zoom. Although initially there were a lot of obstacles, soon educators as well as students started adapting to this new normal. Some believe that this overnight shift to virtual learning without proper training has led to degrading experiences which do not facilitate proper growth, while there are others who believe that online learning has opened many new gateways of learning.

However, post pandemic, a new hybrid model of education infused with technology is believed to appear that is presumed to reap multiple benefits. The new normal has made teachers aware that they are mere mediators and not the source of knowledge. There are thousands of other sources like online text books that are readily available and is just a click away. The entire objective of the education sector has shifted from large scale examinations to development of holistic skills. Nowadays, focus is more on social interaction, collaboration, creativity, and above all problem-solving through coding, AI, and learning foreign languages. Thus, we can say that this pandemic has stirred an epiphany that the conventional (offline) medium of imparting education doesn’t work effectively in the fast-changing world. Watch this video where Dr. Nicholas Correa, Executive Director, New Horizon Public School, Airoli, Navi Mumbai, talks about Covid-19 pandemic's influence on education.