With the outbreak of COVID19 across the globe, apart from other sectors, educational institutions around the world have been facing several challenges in terms of imparting education to the kids. Especially in India, where the penetration of online teaching is very less, and teachers are not trained for such teaching methods, schools are experiencing a tectonic shift.
Teacher’s Readiness for Online Teaching
The teachers training in India does not include any module for online teaching, which is making it more difficult for the schools to cope up with this situation. Schools that lack the technical infrastructure for online classes are finding it more difficult to cope up. Some schools are incapable of affording the technical expertise and if at all they manage it somehow, the teachers are not accustomed to such teaching techniques. Schools that are tech savvy and have the technical expertise are finding a 100% transition to this medium very challenging. Online classes could have been managed somehow; however, creating online modules, assignments, evaluations and above all, co-ordination are all adding up to their misery. And to garnish, comes the retaliation from the parents, who are facing the dual challenge of work from home and making their kids learn from home.
Not every parent is educated or for that matter, educated and trained to teach their children. Parents do not have a formal teacher's training for educating their children, the reason why they send their kids to the best of schools. Online classes are gearing up and gaining acceptance; however, cannot be completely replaced with the traditional methods. These are usually suitable for classes IV or V onwards, or maybe for classes where the children are capable to study themselves and do not require their parent's assistance. For pre-primary and primary classes, where the kids are still learning to read and write, these Online Classes makes no sense at all. Children in this age are still not able to read complete sentences; leave aside asking them to sit in front of a laptop for 2-3 hours to attend the online classes. End of the day, leaving the entire onus of imparting the education to the parents through the online modules or recorded videos that the teachers share.
These are the years when the foundation of a child is built for future education, which, under no circumstances should be compromised on. This is the time when a child requires appropriate training and learning, through professionals, who are experts in their respective fields. The teachers responsible for imparting primary education these days are accordingly trained to cater to the requirements of individual subjects and students as per their capacity.
Although in the current scenario, parents have been trying to match them, to help our children learn the new concepts, as advised and guided by the teachers. However, in no way, they can match the capabilities of the trained teachers, who over these years of training and experience have gained mastery over this.
Parents’ Acceptance for Online Classes
In the present teaching scenario, the entire time at home that the parents devote for their kids’ studies, is towards teaching them the concepts that they usually learn in school. The kids do not get time to revise the same, as the attention span of kids is less and it is not possible to make the kids study at a stretch for two hours or so. The online syllabus being presently covered includes a mix of revising earlier done concepts, in the previous class, as well as introducing a few new concepts. Since, the working parents also have their office commitments; they are not able to divide the study time into three parts for the three subjects respectively with breaks in between as done in school. Consequently, this becomes an overload for the kids to finish all these tasks in one day in the home atmosphere. Home atmosphere is usually a casual atmosphere for kids unlike the school environment. The kids are not used to such a way of learning at home, as the seriousness and the environment at school cannot be replicated at home. Their attention span is limited and they cannot be forced to sit and study like at school.
Also, the parents have to balance between their office schedule, as well as keep up the pace of academics of their children, which is difficult, given the number of hours cannot be extended in a day. Parents not being teachers are incapable to teach the elaborate syllabus to their kids, because of both, lack of proper training and time constraints. If there are different teachers for different subjects, how can the parents be expected to be a replacement for their EVS, English, Maths, Dance, Music and Yoga teachers, and that too during an early stage of their learning.
Other Countries Handling the Situation
Countries around the world have taken several measures for a good cause. For example, United States has suspended the current session and the new session would begin next year. Similarly, schools in China have laid down SOPs for schools, which include sanitizing each child, staff, belongings, what to and not to allow etc, which is being strictly followed and adhered to.
Suitable Options for a Country like India: Focusing on Primary Classes
For a densely populated country like India, it becomes very difficult for the government to formulate and for that matter, implement a policy which is for a larger good. The government can suspend the session for primary classes, like the U.S. at the same time let the online classes continue for the other classes. This would be perhaps the easiest thing to do, however the schools would not agree to this at the first place as it would cost them huge financial losses in terms of fees that they would be losing in lieu of the suspended session. They can ask the government for subsidy in that case, as they would have to pay the salaries of their primary class teachers or if they don't pay, they will have to withdraw their services which would leave large scale unemployment, although temporary, for these teachers.
Rigorous brainstorming would be required to design a model that fits all. The schools can also suggest the government or come up with a plan, where in they would provide learning content to the kids of the primary classes, through whatsapp or email or youtube which would not have any cost involved in terms of technology or any technical expertise. This would at least maintain the continuity of studies of these kids, although can nowhere suffice for the regular classes. Also, the schools can charge at most 25% of the current tuition fees from the parents for this service, which would also keep the teachers employment intact. Charging 100% of the current tuition fees for distance education is absolutely not justifiable. The regular classes of these kids can be resumed next year, the promotion of these kids to a higher class could be decided post evaluation. The parents can also opt for their kids to continue the same class, next year as well, as doing so would definitely make up for the losses that was incurred because of the lack of physical classes. This can perhaps be an ideal situation and can be thought upon.
Online classes cannot be the replacement for regular classes at primary level when the child is still developing their basic reading and writing skills. They can utmost maintain a continuity of their education until the classes physically resume.
We all hope for a Corona immune, physically and socially cohesive society.
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