Coronavirus and its Impact on Education
Coronavirus has had an impact on everything in this world and educational institutions are no exception. The first case of coronavirus was reported in the Wuhan city of China which soon after, spread to every part of the world affecting human life. To avoid the spread of coronavirus everything had to be closed and the whole world came to a halting stop. The duties of airports, manufacturing industries, and the business sector, etc. had to be ceased. The education sector was also affected greatly.
Coronavirus is a virus that spreads from human to human and that is why human interaction had to be Limited. Even with all the precautions taken more than 75 million people contracted coronavirus and more than 1 million people lost their lives. World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus to be a pandemic which created a lot of panic throughout the world. Like everything else, governments decided that the educational institutions such as schools, colleges, and universities had to be closed, to keep the students and the faculty safe from the coronavirus. As of today more than 1 billion students and learners are affected worldwide by the coronavirus.
Yes, every sector suffered from coronavirus but the educational sector is responsible for the future of children which should be in no way compromised. The biggest impact coronavirus had on education was that it was delayed. When the academic institutions closed, nobody knew for how long the students had to wait before going back to their respective institutions, and at least for 3 months students just have to wait in their houses to continue with their education.
Exams were delayed due to which the final year University students had to wait unnecessarily for their degrees, school students could not be promoted into new classes and high school students waiting to go to Universities and colleges had to wait even more.
Probably the biggest impact coronavirus had on education was the increase in online learning. Due to the closure of academic institutions distance learning programs were introduced which included online platforms through which online lectures and classes were conducted. Online learning has been around for a while but it was not as popular as it was made during the time of coronavirus. It is believed that even after everything is back to normal online learning will still be very much in use.
Online learning made things easier to a great extent but it also brought a lot of issues to the surface. A lot of research done by Professional Thesis Writers in Lahore it was found that millions of families don’t have easy access to technology and it is still considered a luxury. Online learning has its perks but the issues are that it requires a stable internet connection laptops mobile phones or personal computers to properly attend the classes and not everyone has these things available. The class divide was quite evident now which was being ignored for decades.
Students faced plenty of problems because according to them it was not easy to take classes without proper internet connections and even tried to avoid online learning. Students complain that it was not possible to understand what the teacher is trying to explain because they are used to the conventional ways of studying. Students found themselves to be demotivated and it was very hard for them to pay attention during online classes. Teachers had their share of problems. A lot of our senior teachers may have doctorate degrees but they are technologically illiterate and had to learn everything about the technology in a very small period which is not at all easy and they had to change their curriculum according to online learning. Every teacher knows that some students require physical presence and particular attention but through online learning, this was almost next to impossible.
After the first wave of coronavirus academic Institutions were opened for a few months before being closed again because of the second deadlier wave. When the academic institutions reopened, necessary precautions were taken. Students practiced social distancing, had to wear masks and hygienic habits were promoted.
Let’s just hope that everything gets fine very soon and students can begin with their studies normally. Education is very important for every society to grow and have national development but because of coronavirus, it was greatly impacted and technically put children’s future is at stake.