The logjam of coronavirus has stopped every activity across the country and still the fear remains. The prediction of the third wave and ongoing medical crisis in India is evident as to why schooling was shifted to the online medium. Now that the schools are reopening in some states in August. So, the parents are still hesitant to send their kids back to a dangerous zone.

Why this system of online schooling started, is not unknown anymore. Many people have delivered their views in favor or against this system, during the past 1 year. But no results came out of the debates.

Opinions came and stood on the edge of everyone’s ears but like every other news people got habitual to this one also. When the schools are finally opening there is still a burning worry of the possible virus attacks on students. So, how will the parents make up their minds to resend their kids to school? And even if they do, will the children get accustomed to the switching again?

Students faced a dual battle of opinions: some faced a lot of criticism for being undisciplined & inattentive in class, while some others faced a positive appreciation for multitasking.

Over and all, these online classes for students seem to be the only way forward for the current education scenario because the consistently mutating virus is here to stay.

But the question stands, how it has impacted the student community. Whether or not the students have completely adapted to this new system, now needs to be discussed.

Ever since the online medium of studies started, there has been a sudden expectation from teachers to upgrade and students to adapt, which is quite unreasonable. Teachers faced the problem of preparing digital material and delivering them effectively in the class. This proved to be a challenging point for many teachers because they were adapted to the conventional methods of teaching before. That’s why they are not tech-savvy by nature.

Also, they countered problems in observing the students’ body language and attention span in class because many students used to switch off their mic and camera. It was hard to address problems like teaching pace and understanding capacity during traditional teaching, but it has become even harder in the online mediums.

Students all across the world had a dynamic impact due to online medium:

• Earlier, there used to be a proper way of answering in class. But now that consideration is lost. Students often do not care to respond to their teachers during lectures. Either they switch off their mic & camera or reply from anonymous accounts to create a disturbance.

• There is a widespread problem of indiscipline among students. They developed a habit of creating disturbances during lectures and insulting their teachers by hidden identity. There was no compulsion of a proper dress code and conduct. This adversity gave rise to a number of cybercrimes involving the young generation.

• The students realized that due to severe limitation of education to the digital medium, they were unable to perform additional lab exercises, dissertation projects, field trips that used to complement the theoretical study. This led to their inability to understand the topics.

• The holistic development of students stopped completely, making them victims of depression, cave syndrome, anxiety, and trust issues. Due to a lack of social and sports skills, the development of students was undermined. This could result in them underperforming in their professional life later.

• Another major problem was of huge socio-economic divide among regions. The students & teachers of backward areas faced issues of interrupted internet supply, slow or no connectivity, unavailability of resources, and unaffordable costly devices to sustain their studies. That’s why a lot of students dropped out and left studies.

• To combat the above difficulty, the teachers started making videos of their lectures online and sharing them on WhatsApp or YouTube, but then the inability to ask classroom questions and the problem of rote learning arose.

• Due to the availability of smartphones to only male adults in less rich states of India, the girl students were unable to access the lectures. Also, they had more burden of responsibilities as compared to male students, which caused an interruption in their learning. This could later lead to a widening gender gap in employment.

• Students with high-speed internet and greater time with smartphones had their habits worsened. They used phones till late at night for their studies, got up late in the morning, and without performing their daily routine got access to the smartphones again. Therefore, there was no time for taking proper healthy sleep and follow a healthy diet to survive. This resulted in mental & physical health problems like obesity, diabetes, anxious disorders at a young age.

• The parents of younger students reported that children at such an early age have a short concentration span, which is why their attention diverts in the middle of the lecture. After a point of time, the class is ineffective on them.

The system of playschool where they enjoyed learning got vanished completely, making them more irritable.

• Online education proved to be even worse for students with disorders, like learning inability, autism, and low-vision. They lacked effective means like before, to pursue education because their teachers could not use proper methods.

It’s not that the online system came with only problems. Many benefits too were conferred by it:

• The opportunity of flexible learning across various platforms was the prime advantage of online systems.

• Students could learn at their own pace without the need to be answerable every time.

• There were no strict schedules for the classes.

• And recently we saw that the marking system was also made lenient along with the approach to examination.

But still, everyone is questioning whether this is the limit?

Online schooling proved to be far different from the expectations of it, worldwide. No one is quite satisfied with the results it has given except for a few students and teachers.

In their opinion, the burden of performance has lessened in the meantime. They don’t have to be responsible as much as they were before the zoom era.

But this shielding away from responsibility is not the way out of it. Till how long will those who should be responsible, be running away from responsibilities?

Read: Offbeat Education to find out more.

The elders, including both parents and teachers, might use effective means to convey the message to their child that health is the first priority that’s why schools have to remain closed. That doesn’t mean they could act in undesirable ways and create turbulence.

They could keep a check on the time spent on devices & encourage them to indulge in mindfulness and sports practices. They could monitor the quality of assessments that are being prepared by these students.

And to combat the future employment crisis, the government should devise inclusive and effective methods to lead today’s generation. Like the other day, IIT Kharagpur partnered with Amazon Web Services to prepare the National Resource Platform. This program consists of monitoring eye movement, motion, and other parameters in the online classes. They showed that AI could be used for personalized approaches to study.

Feel free to comment with your views and suggestions to help me diverse my approach towards this topic.