Author : Suvanu Raha
Today, as I am typing this blog on my laptop, it just reminds me of how education has enriched us with thoughts and abilities to articulate our imagination and many other things. Yes! Education is a necessity in today’s world. As the saying goes food, water and shelter are the 3 most essential things to survive, I would like to add the 4th component which is essential for living and that is EDUCATION. With over 900 Universities, 40,000 colleges and millions of schools serving to a country with a humongous population of more than 1.3 billion.
I was a part of education industry in my previous organization and I have seen the modern era of education. The education system has undergone a major transformation in recent years, the whole education both higher and at school level it is trying to bring in digitization and online learning. Many big schools were already transforming but there was a lot of restrains from many educators.
It was all okay till the month of March 2020 until we got hit by a pandemic called COVID-19.
Within few weeks govt announced complete lockdown in the country and all educational institutions got shut.
The big questions came in, what to do?
Does this mean education will stop?
Students will sit at home and stop learning?
what about the exams?
Are all students going to miss their promotions?
The simple answer was NO. Nothing stopped and nothing can stop education and learning. Sitting on desks and chairs in a classroom is not the definition of education or learning. Education and learning have no boundaries defined it can be anywhere. What came to rescue all these huge numbers of educational institutions?
Any guesses?
Yes, it is online education. It has been in talks for years and now it was finally time for taking up the change. With Digital India initiative by the government, the internet infrastructure is quite even in cities but again the rural side there are issue on the internet part. Challenges will always be there, and we must find a solution and come out of it. Now all institutions from primary to higher education classes have gone online with many applications in the market. We don’t know about the length of this pandemic, but we have to assume this is the new normal. Schools will start may be in few weeks or months and schools will not be the same again. There will be many new rules in place starting from wearing masks, PPEs, maintaining social distancing to thermal scanning, sitting away from your classmates and many others.
With all these in place still online education will prevail and it will be the future of the new normal in our country. With online classes students will save time on travel and getting ready. They will have more time for learning not only subject contents but also other things as well. Students will be familiar with technology from the very young age and learning opportunities will increase with time. Today, in this new world online education is growing and not only that, students are getting evaluated through online tests and getting promoted to next class or semester. So, with the evolving technology online education is the new normal and the future of millions of students, teachers and institutions.
A simple thought before I conclude, Education is such a thing that can never be stopped, and learning is such a thing that never ends. Whatever happens today or in coming future we need to be prepared with the best of solution not only restricting to education but otherwise too.
To conclude, online education is a blessing in disguise and this format of education should continue in this new normal India and I am optimistic that we as a country with so much of technological advancements happening will be setting examples of online education and learning to the whole world. Millions of educators and students of this nation will be the torch bearer for many other countries when online education will be discussed and practiced.
We shall overcome this pandemic and lets all be united and welcome the new normal with greater energy and positivity.
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