The Pandemic has not only affected the economy of the world but has affected the education system drastically. More than 1.4 billion students are not studying in the classrooms today. E-learning has paved its way much earlier than what we would have experienced in the upcoming digital world, of course, a few years later!

If we talk about the current scenario, it’s been 5 months of the pandemic and things are just getting worse. Still, most of the industries whether they are MNC’s or the shootings for the TV serials or web series have started again with all the essential precautions. Only the educational institutions are on the hold because of the option of Online Education which is equally efficient for the students. What matters the most is the quality of education, whether online or in the classrooms.

Coming to the part of challenges, every situation has its pros and cons. Online education also faces some obstacles for both the teacher and the students.

1. Internet connectivity: The students are out of their schools in around 167 countries. Every place and area is different and many without proper network connectivity. Students are having problems while studying due to major internet issues and are not able to attend their lectures effectively.

2. Dropout rates: Government declared schemes like Mid-Day Meal so that the poor people and below the poverty line also send their children to the schools which worked well. Now, since there are no schools that means no food which resulted in major dropouts this year. That means the food is the only bait for those people to send their children to study.

3. Electronic gadgets: Online education demands a gadget like a mobile phone or a laptop. Not all people can afford this. Recently, a father in Himachal Pradesh sold his cow which was the only source of income, for purchasing a smartphone so that his son could study. Not all the people do this and therefore stop educating their children due to the expenses involved in this. Therefore, a gadget is directly proportional to education in terms of online classes. This problem has not aroused in India but many other countries. While 92% of students in Switzerland or Norway have access to electronic gadgets, only 34% of students in Indonesia do.

4. Improvising skills: Teachers have a lifetime habit of teaching on the blackboards face to face and this Electronic teaching is a very new concept for them. It is very difficult for them to teach the students effectively when they do not have much knowledge about this new type of teaching. Without the absence of the physical presence of students or assets like blackboards, teachers find themselves much helpless.

Apart from the few demerits, if we look at a brighter side, we can see the coming generation which is fully digital. We have often heard and debated that E-education will take over the classroom teaching but this time it will happen much faster having an experience of months. Once we are adapted to this and we start to grow, we will be ready for this new type of learning.

If we talk about the status of online education in India, we can notice that students retain approximately 45-60% more material when studying online whereas only 15-28% when studying in the classroom that too if the class is a smart class. Also, online education saves 40% of the learning time of the students. But on the other side, according to the survey by Niti Aayog, 55,000 villages in India are lacking mobile network coverage which makes the people there hopeless to think about E-Education.

The road ahead will be smoother than this because we were not prepared this time. Zero training was provided to the teachers, unlike the US, no gadgets were given to the students, there were no arrangements and lack of awareness was there. These things were partially responsible for the dropout rates of the students this year. The options available in the online study material are outstanding. Whether we talk about re-reading or recording the lectures, it is estimated that it will be more beneficial to the higher class students.

A report by Shreya Kulshrestha