National Lockdown Effect: Online Learning and Teaching

In this distressing time of the pandemic outbreak, education sector of India is undergoing a different kind of experiment. Due to lockdown in the country and closure of schools and other educational institutions, physical teaching is not possible. The government is promoting e-learning/online learning from various platforms. E-contents are made available through many platforms. Various Conferencing tools have been used for conducting online classes. Open education resources are helping learners to learn in their own way. A lot of webinars, e-seminar and online training programs are being conducted. An overview of all the efforts by government and education sector brings a feeling that we are going on a positive track. Researches (only survey type researches) are also indicating positive results regarding the success of E mode of learning. Due to lock down all the surveys are conducted through online form platform as a data collection tool. Disclosure of the identity of the subject is possible in this medium of data collection, Hence all the teachers who are also employees somewhere are bound to give positive responses in favour of their employee's input. After undergoing the various experiences of online (synchronous and asynchronous) teaching/learning and interactions with other fellow teachers during this pandemic situation, the following observations have been emerged out for consideration.

1. Our teachers are basically trained for traditional/physical teaching. So, shifting from physical teaching to online teaching requires preliminary training, which was not provided to them. As per Government orders, it is mandatory for the management of all the educational institutions to pay salaries to their teachers. On the ground of paying salary to teachers and to obtain fees from students and seeking new admission for the coming session, management of educational Institutes provoked teachers to adopt online teaching models (synchronous and asynchronous). As according to their degree of proficiency in ICT skills and guidelines provided by their management, teachers have to adopt it which brought many complexities

· A whole lot of e-content that came in the public domain has posed the threat to teacher's privacy.

· All the teachers are not aware of copyright and creative commons license hence they may face some legal repercussions in the future.

· Students of vulnerable categories, Poor families, low-income groups, digitally illiterate communities, and non-internet coverage areas, will not be able to get benefits. Hence, goal of 'education for all' is under stake.

· There is a lack of uniformity in strategies adopted by various education institutions. These strategies also keep on changing according to the ideas imported by management and imposed on teachers and students, hence creating chaos among teachers and students.

2. The place and time of online teaching cannot be at par with traditional teaching because teachers need more time for preparation for online teaching and its content development. Students also have to work extra for understanding the concept through e contents and going through the assignment. But, the time table of educational institutions has been set as per their normal school hours. So, teachers and students are overburdened. This has given rise to many problems such as:

· Mental stress

· Extra stress on eyes and neck resulting in health problems.

· Sleep disorder

· The extra financial burden for purchasing an extra data package

· Connectivity issues many time effects synchronous online teaching and hence creates confusion.

· The Global visibility and accessibility of data may make teachers and students' life vulnerable by digital miscreants.

3. The flood of webinars and training programs or workshop has created a perplexing situation for teachers. They are not able to decide whichever is useful and which one to leave. Webinars generally are found to be mismanaged and not fulfilling the purpose or objectives. Two or three speakers deliver their lectures sometimes on the theme and sometimes off the theme. There are fewer chances of interaction among speaker/s and participants and among participants. The conduction of webinars has also raised a cut-throat competition among schools and among higher education institutes, even; competition has reached the interdepartmental level within institutions. So, the conduction of these webinars has lost its significance. The same is the case with training programs. A stage has reached when teachers and students have started avoiding webinars and online training programs.

4. Online teaching and learning are being promoted with extreme enthusiasm. But, there is no mention of exams. the exams of students are pending. They are under stress about your future studies and pursuit. Students' education is being focused too much but there is no disclosure about the planning of examinations.

Though all these efforts are appreciable (as we look it with macro vision) but, inherent discrepancies, are really to look upon. Online education has been the keyword for distance education, open schooling and Open Universities, because they have to cater for diverse students from diverse regions to fulfill their diverse needs. Above all distance education has always been the alternate source of education (not the primary). In the pandemic situation, we all have come to know that for the near future only traditional teaching/learning methods cannot be relied upon. So, we have to look for alternate methods. Blended learning (a fusion of traditional education and online education) is a better option. Government issue orders to universities, colleges, schools, and other academic bodies for promoting and providing education from home, but they never convey strategy or plan to execute it properly. Policymakers at the top should plan how, where, and why of strategy (keeping uniformity in mind) for the proper functioning of the education sector and then execute the plan systematically. Although many decisions taken by the government for the education sector are remarkable still Government and policymakers have to think deeper about the inherent problems which are emerging with the passage of time.

Some suggestions in this regard are:

1. MHRD should frame common guidelines and implementation strategy of e-learning and teaching for pre-primary, Primary, secondary, and tertiary level.

2. State level education bodies should make proper planning for implementation of the guidelines of MHRD in schools and higher education institutions.

3. Clear guidelines and programs should be communicated with students and their guardians regarding their exams and admissions ( much have been communicated regarding admissions but not about exams)

4. A uniform strategy should be followed in every educational institution regarding online teaching and learning.

5. A suitable uniform online training should be provided to every teacher of districts and States.

6. Students should be properly oriented about the proper use of online tools and platforms.

7. The management of various private educational institutions should strictly follow the guidelines of Government education bodies regarding duration of online teaching. All the online educational activities of educational institution should be reported to government. Educational institutions should not be allowed to perform extra activities other than the guidelines.

These suggestions will really help to give proper direction to the education system of our country. Adopting uniform online teaching and learning policy with proper planning will help teachers and students to adapt themselves according to the requirement of the current pandemic situation. This will help them to get prepared for the changed scenario without any mental stress, burden and confusion. The uniformity in the teaching-learning methodology will also prevent them from cutthroat competitions.

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