Shibdas Ghose
Dimapur
Owing to the overwhelming presence and spread of the Corona Virus or COVID-19 at a faster rate, lockdown was imposed in all schools, colleges, and other educational institution of Nagaland since March 16, 2020 (if not mistaken the date). It goes without saying that among many of the affected things, the academic life of our school going children have been tremendously affected since they were confined to surroundings of their four walls for fear of being infected by the fatal disease. Such closure accelerated the development of online learning system as the only option to cope with the enormous challenge. Very soon schools and teachers have adopted various online platforms in order to teach their children. Despite of their relentless efforts even by burning midnight oil to prepare their lessons for connecting through online, the desired results could not be achieved, rather it was trifling.
Some of the notable drawbacks that attributed to it or hindered on the way for smooth functioning of online class were: (1) Many parents who became redundant employees had to face extreme financial stringency to clear their school fees as well as to purchase android mobiles counting on the number of children. (2) Illiteracy or Little knowledge of many parents to assist their kids in online lessons. (3) Many schools could not equip themselves properly for online facility. (4) Most of the schools situated outskirts or in interior areas had to face the problem of disruption on internet service frequently or lack of communications. (5) A good number of students were found reluctant or disinterested in online learning. At the initial stage of spreading COVID-19, few children also left their respective places and went elsewhere not giving much importance in their lessons. (6) Even some of the teachers were not properly trained or capable to take online classes and to create interest among the children therein.
Through e-learning has made inroads into school education and students are turning to it to gain knowledge, we must not forget that a significantly larger percentages of students hails from rural areas. Parents education and occupation are also related factors to the modernization of education whether capable of adjusting to continually changing situations and demands.
The teaching method should be based upon interest of the child. The educand should actively participate in the learning process. They should be taught to think independently. Free exchange of ideas should be developed. It includes the education that comes to the child by playing with another child, speaking to another child, imitating other children words, pointing to others errors, trying to help others. The children should be taught practical things. The child should understand the reality by his self-experience, should explore things himself and should not depend on others. We find a young child of 4 or 5 operating a cute mobile phone, but fail to realise that the child is not even to understand the meanings of words appearing on the screen. We do not use our memory and ‘Google’ everything. We do not even to do simple calculations in our head, why? Because we have calculators. We must realise that too much reliance on technology is a serious issue. Our brain is like any other muscle that we have in our body. If we don’t exercise it enough then it is also prone to get weak.
Today slowly and gradually we are coming back to our normal life because the situation has improved and we can definitely say that the third wave of pandemic is on the wane but not over. Let us pray and hope for early normalization of the situation and commencement of offline classes in full swing soon for the greater academic interest of the children.
