How Lockdown Has Impacted Education In India?

The global pandemic, Covid-19 that spread a scare around the world has also changed the lifestyles of almost everyone. For almost the last 2 months, the very required social distancing and national lockdowns have pushed people into their homes and their work online.

Schools, colleges, even offices, and institutions have been closed with an indefinite date of opening or knowledge of future situations. Students are stuck in a cross wire of losing out on their precious study time and trying to cope with the situations as well as online education.

The lockdown and closing of educational institutes have affected an estimate of about 600 million students all over the world, the count that only includes a number of school children.

The number becomes much larger after adding the number of students pursuing higher education, under graduation, post-graduation, Ph.D., and more. And the impact was more severe for the underprivileged children.

How is the Education sector doing during Lockdown?

Though, in these situations, not many realize that being safe and sound inside their homes in the comfort of their needful and WiFi is a privilege.

Not all are able to work and earn or study from home because of the lack of availability of the required resources of technology. This is where the digital divide comes in. The digital divide is a gap or difference between who has access to the internet or equivalent technology, may it be for any reason.

The ones with the lack of technology in today’s fast-moving world get a little left behind, many a time, especially as we all are witnessing during these times.

While most of the schools, colleges, and institutions around the world have moved to digital platforms and are continuing their classes and submissions through online platforms, not all are able to do so.

Especially the students from underprivileged backgrounds, their education has come to a complete stop because of where there is lack of food, one cannot expect the availability of WiFi and other technologies.

Education and job fields this year are going through a roller coaster and trying to survive and do their best, coping with the current situation.

While many schools and colleges decided to promote their students directly to the next class because these are end of the year times, others took the support of digital platforms to finish their portions and conduct examinations.

We have been hearing about paperless education and digitalization in the field of education but completely depending on online education itself is a huge change that came in during this time. Amid these times, the United

Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has suggested adopting distance learning programs and open educational applications and platforms for all educational platforms to be able to reach learners remotely and not disrupt the children’s education.

How has the Lockdown impacted Entrance Exams?

Important examinations like GMAT for MBA aspirants, GRE, SATs, ACT, NEET, JEE, and many more have been suspended for the time being till further notice is provided by the official bodies of the examinations. For now, no date has been provided due to uncertain future situations.

Even school level examinations like finals and boards have mostly been canceled and students have been promoted to the next classes with an average of the marks they have achieved in the exams that could be conducted before the lockdown.

It is important for the students who are going to appear for these examinations this year to keep a lookout on any new information being communicated by the officials of the examinations.

What is the impact of the Lockdown on College Admissions?

Most of the formalities for admission in colleges these days are done over online platforms and the college’s official websites. Especially, form filling for the entrance exams.

Though the date of applying has passed for many colleges till this time, many colleges have decided to extend their application dates and keep their portals open for longer for students to apply.

Admissions into colleges this year are assumed to be later than every year because of the given situations but because of that, every college and institute is being considerate and also trying their best to not burden the students or create panic.

The official websites of most colleges post regular updates of their updates as lack of information may also lead to unnecessary confusion. It is always better to go through them while deciding to apply.

Most colleges are not terminating admissions of the students who have already passed the entrance tests and have been admitted. They will be allowed to join their respective colleges normally once the situation normalizes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other government bodies, and even AICTE have rolled our requests and instructions to the educational and job sectors regarding the situation and to ease the pressure on them.

How can you build your portfolio during this crucial time?

This period of quarantine and self-isolation has given people a time of self-reflection and also to pursue things that they are not able to in their normal routines.

People are using this time to study beyond just their curriculum, learn new skills, and work on the development of their portfolios. Yes, it can be done while sitting at home. The Internet today has become a one-way solution to many of these things.

Online courses on many platforms have been made cheaper or free for the students. Even colleges like Harvard, AICTE, and other huge libraries have made many of their study materials, online courses, and books freely available for the students online.

Many of these courses also provide online tests, projects to keep the students engaged as well as certificates at the end, all of which add huge value to the students’ portfolios.

Not only that, but online courses are also giving a chance to the students to pursue courses of their interest that they might not be getting a chance to learn in their college curriculums.

Applying to online courses does not have any specific eligibility criteria and students from any field with whatever marks they have received can apply in any course of their choosing. It is a very open way of learning.

Most of these courses are also self-paced, which means that the student can learn at the pace of their own requirement and comfort.

Many colleges like MIT University, Pune, are also providing support to their students in these times by sponsoring many of the online course websites and making them available to their students for free.

The situations are scary but students do not need to panic as everyone they are looking up to has been working on planning a proper comeback after the lockdown ends so that education of the students is not disturbed furthermore. So till the lockdown continues, one should use the time to spend with their families, learn and grow.