COVID19, the Lockdown and the Trauma of Online Classes:
A Student Perspective:
It was 11th of March, 2020 when World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID 19, a pandemic. In most of the countries, lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of this highly contagious disease. The Government of India also decided to impose lockdown. On 24th March, 2020 the Central Government ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21 days. Civilians were ordered not to come out of their homes and follow social distancing. Every day to day activity was impacted and so was the education sector. The students were initially happy about it because there were no schools and colleges due to the COVID 19 lockdown. After the pressure of school work, bullying, facing strict teachers, students got some break and time to spend with their family. All they have to do is just eating, sleeping and entertainment. Ahsan Shams, a UG student from Aligarh Muslim University says, “When the first nationwide lockdown was imposed, it was unprecedented for everyone & I along with others was curious & anxious about the forthcoming events. In the first few days, it was challenging for me to cope up with the new schedule & utilize my time appropriately but with time, I've learned to cope with it & invest my time properly.”
In a report of World Economic Forum, according to a study conducted on class ninth students of South West of England, it was indicated that there might have been an overall reduction in anxiety and increase in wellbeing among children aged 13 to 14 during COVID 19 lockdown. However loss of peer group and missing the school environment might also have resulted in a sense of seclusion and loneliness for others. Laksha Rao, a UG student of Jain University, Bangalore says, “Lockdown had a bad impact on my health (mental and physical) but at the same time it was a great family time. It was disturbing and boring not to be able to go out of house with only.” When asked about the wellbeing of students Mahiya Badr, a PG student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi says, “Students feel like they are pushed in a coffin to be honest. I’m so depressed that I feel useless and question the existence of living.”
As the lockdown got extended, students were worried about their educational activities and started wondering that when they will be able to go to school? They want to go for an outing and are eagerly waiting to meet their friends. A recent survey of Indian Welfare Trust sheds light on the fact that how children are being forced because of the unprecedented outbreak. According to the survey published in oneindia.com 89% of the respondents believe that their children’s learning will be affected by the delay due to the delay in lifting up the COVID 19 lockdown. Mahiya Badr says, “Far away from university, houses aren't an abode for studies. There are so many distractions and fewer facilities. Studies aren't done in isolation. You need resources like books, libraries, internet, and help from your peers. At home you have none of that. How many data will you spend on online lectures? How many in online resources? What will you do for the things you don't understand? Especially when there is no electricity and internet connectivity? It is a loss of education, loss of economic backup, uncertainty of the future. Students from terminating batches have no clue what do next. Imposing lock down without proper planning was a disastrous step.”
The closure of the educational institutions due to the outbreak of COVID 19 leads to unprecedented challenges for the education sector. These challenges need to be addressed and solutions have to drawn to keep the children learning without giving any stress. How feasible it is to take classes from home? In this era of COVID 19 lockdown, the world has adapted a policy to work from home, through the internet. E-Learning was the way adapted by the educational institutions to keep the teachers and students connected and to continue the learning experience. According to UNESCO, “since the outbreak of COVID 19 began, some 1.37 billion students in 138 countries worldwide have been affected by school and university closures. Nearly 60.2 million school teachers and university lecturers are no longer in the classroom.” Ahsan Shams opines “One of the activities which are still halted due to the nationwide lockdown is, reopening of Schools & Colleges. And the major bearer of the loss generated due to this is the Students. According to several surveys, poor students are the most affected & many of them are on the verge of becoming malnourished. Mid-Day meal scheme has hugely benefited India to fight against malnutrition & MDM has been a major means to combat it. But with the closing down of schools, MDM has been discontinued & underprivileged kids have been severely affected. School & Colleges are not only centres where formal education is provided but much more beyond that. Each moment that we spent in schools & colleges is a learning experience for our lives. But with the imposed lockdown, we are deprived of enriching our soul & mind.”
I personally feel that this is a tremendous loss to the education sector, a loss which cannot be compensated. Initially, online classes felt good but slowly there were many issues faced by us. Students also came to know that there are more disadvantages than the advantages. Mahiya Badr says, “It stunts our growth. Affect our studies. Online education is exclusive in nature.” E-learning isn’t bad but I believe nothing can replace traditional classes. E-learning can just be an ICT tool in the wholesome teaching and learning pedagogy, practised additionally with classroom teaching to make the learning and teaching experience better, easier and stress free. This can’t be and can never be a replacement of a good teacher. Hurdles such as: network issues, electricity cuts, lack of technical skills, no studying atmosphere, no study material like books, no lectures of traditional classes, laziness, eyes always getting exposed to screen, etc... are being faced by the students due to the shift to e-learning. Digitalising the education system has frustrated our teachers. I have heard that the teachers are being removed from the job and some have even resigned willingly because they cannot handle gadgets and somewhere they don’t accept digitalisation of education.
Ahsan Shams says, “The major problems, which I faced in my initial days of lockdown was to plan my schedule. As there was an overwhelming change is the structure of the education sector & physical classes were shifted to online education. To endure such changes, I had to change my learning habit. It was a challenging job to concentrate & manage online classes, both on the teacher and student end.” In a country like India where network always fluctuates and the connectivity is low, the e-learning miserably fails. Students who live in the remote areas or villages are suffering the most. Recently, you must have heard cases of students committing suicide because they were unable to attend the online classes. Nadeem Akhtar a friend of mine who lives in Mau, Uttar Pradesh is unable to attend the online classes of AMU because the 4G connectivity runs at a speed of 2G and sometimes even that also doesn’t work. He could barely use WhatsApp also and so he doesn’t recharge his number with the internet pack. I would like to bring your attention to Kashmir, where students are facing unprecedented type of lockdown and they don’t have access to 4G or 3G internet. How difficult it is for them to study!
While e-learning is at its nascent stages in India, I don’t think we should totally depend on it until the internet connectivity gets better. Online study materials are either paid or not of very high quality. Meanwhile nothing can replace books and classroom lectures. According to parents, “online classes/e-education isn’t helping their children much and they fear if students will get enough time to prepare for exams.” It is obvious that the closure of educational institutions has widened the learning gap and digitalising the education process has once again raised the issue of marginalisation of the children belonging to the lower income groups. The online mode of the teaching and learning process is discriminatory to poor and marginalised students. Families with good economic condition can afford technical devices and internet facilities and are able to turn to online education to keep their children learning at home while majority are unable to afford.
E-learning has worsened the class & social differences, especially between private and government school systems. The Indian Government spends 4.6% of its GDP on education which is less than Sub-Saharan countries like Kenya, Togo & Zimbabwe (source – India Today). Students with low family income do not have access to digital learning facilities at home. We must have heard the news of parents who are daily wagers, landless labourers, drivers, maids, security guards, etc... are working hard and doing something by going out of their comfort level to earn an extra amount of money so that they can buy smart phones for their children and they can attend their online classes. UNESCO reported that around 320 million learners are affected in India, of which about 34 million belong to the tertiary level of education. According to UNESCO “Half of the total number of learners, some 826 million students are kept out of the classroom by the COVID 19 pandemic, since they don’t have access to computer and 706 million have no internet at home, at a time when digitally based distance learning is used to ensure educational continuity in the vast majority of countries.”
The country is undergoing with recession, people are losing their jobs, small industries and businesses are shutting down, payments are being cut, sales and production is at halt due to the lockdown, there are very less opportunities of new jobs, etc… all these circumstances aren’t favourable for the pass out students who are looking for jobs now. Shadmeen Fatima, a UG pass out student from Magadh Mahila College, Patna University says, “It has affected the economy and the big issue is unemployment. Many people lost their respective jobs. Freshers like us will face hard time in applying in any company because they hardly hire the new comers. It can affect in long term.” Human Rights Watch reported that more than 1.5 billion students are out of school already. Wide spread loss in jobs and income along with economic insecurity among families are likely to also increase child labour & exploitation. On the other hand, cases of anxiety, panic attacks, mood swings, sadness, distress and depression has drastically rose up. Whether school going students, UG or PG students, the COVID 19 lockdown has worsened the mental health and happiness of all. We started feeling lonely, wanted to be alone, getting irritated easily, feeling of anger, sadness, etc... The mental health of students is a topic which is discussed very passionately but for the name sake. The entire performance of the student depends on his/her mental condition. The mental health has to be given more importance especially at school level. For more than 9 months we stayed at home, been lazy and physically unfit and are in different academic phases like: some are waiting for placements, some have completed their course and waiting for their result, some are ready to appear in competitive exams, some are ready to give their entrance tests, some are stuck with their incomplete studies of the semesters, etc... In each of these cases, one thing is common, the future is on hold and the students don’t know what will happen with them now. This will definitely make students anxious about their career. Ahsan Shams says that “the crises, it has inflicted upon us is going to coerce us mentally & financially for many years to come. We are still in the midst of the pandemic & thus can't analyze the complete havoc it has created. Once it is over, we would be in a better position to analyse the situation.” In Mahiya Badr’s opinion the “lockdown needs to come to an end. We don't know when the vaccine would be invented. Education institutions need to be reopened. People need to be given adequate knowledge on Living with corona.”
Unlock is happening in India but we have to remain on guards and work on our immune system. As this virus is not going to end, we have to stay safe and start learning to live with it. We just need to be back to our routine with every safety measures we can take. This time shall pass!
©Saad Inshrah
(Published in Khabar Khand,
October 28th, 2020)
