Education Vs Covid-19
In 2020, when the pandemic hit and spread like wildfire, the world came to a standstill. Nobody knew what had to be done, and several large industries faced a blow that they are still struggling to recover from. The Education sector was one of the most affected industries as studies came to a halt. Although the students enjoyed their free time initially, it took a toll on their socio-emotional well-being. Not being able to meet their peers and having to stay indoors 24×7 affected them emotionally. As industry experts and leaders, we are concerned about their coping mechanism with this loss of study, which is fair enough. But, we should also consider their emotional and social well-being.
Covid-19 posed an unprecedented challenge to education, students, parents, teachers, schools and the education system as a whole forgot the fear of technology and jumped on the bandwagon of technology to ensure that things don’t stand still. Radio, television, Zoom, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, YouTube, WhatsApp; such technological Apps/ tools received even more attention. While we know it was not much of a struggle for the upper-middle and middle-class families and those who could afford a smart device without disrupted internet; it was a significant struggle for those who could not. For students and these low-income school teachers, to adapt to these technological solutions was a drastic shift. Thus, TechConnect invited Three industry leaders: Subir Shukla, Maya Menon and Damini Mainkar; to help us understand this
Education Vs Covid-19
battle in even more detail and know the expectations they would prefer seeing and the advice they have for teachers following the “NEW NORMAL” in the post-covid scenario. While these leaders shared their individual opinions, one opinion was common amongst them –
“Give students at least a month to interact and play with their peers without enforcing study related tasks upon them. The mental well-being should be a primary concern for teachers as well as parents when students return to school.“