The world is going through an unprecedented crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic completely or partially paralyzed the functioning of all sectors of the world. The resulting uncertainty in education is enormous. According to the United Nations, the largest epidemic in history has affected the education of 1.6 billion children in 190 countries. School closures have disrupted the education of 94% of children worldwide and 99% of children in developing countries. According to the United Nations, this has not only contributed to education but also to child abuse and malnutrition in developing countries. A significant change in the field of education due to COVID-19 is that learning has become almost entirely online. At the time of the lockdown, there was no way other than the online mode to advance children's learning all over the world. The situation was similar in the education sector of Kerala. Kanal had conducted a study to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of this online learning system and to understand the children's views and opinions about it. That study report is attached below
REPORT
The study covered 330 students from 14 districts of Kerala from primary level to higher secondary level. The data was collected from 310 respondents through online forms, 10 respondents over the phone and 10 respondents in person. Of these, 11% are primary school students, 15.8% are upper primary students, 33.5% are high school students and 39.7% are higher secondary students. Children from 5 regions: Rural, Urban, Tribal, Coastal and High Range were also included in the study. 42.6% of children live in urban areas, 46.8% in rural areas, 4.8% in coastal areas, 3.9% in tribal areas and 1.9% in high ranges. 97.1% of the children in the survey regularly attended online classes. 79.1% of the children attended online classes through mobile phones. At the same time, 17.4% of children used TV, 15 .2% used laptop and 7.7% used desktop as their modes of learning. 2.9% of children borrowed and used someone else's equipment temporarily. Thirty-two percent of children surveyed bought new gadgets for the online class and 1.9% of children received a gift of a new mobile phone, TV or computer to at tend online classes. 4.5% of children spend more than 7 hours a
day for online classes. 13.2 % of children spend 4 - 6 hours and 64 .2% spend 1 -2 hours for online class. Rest 18.1% of children spend less than an hour for online class. 16.36% of children who attend online classes for less than an hour are from the tribal area. Similarly, 75% of children from tribal areas attend online classes for less than an hour. A major challenge of the online class is mobile connectivity and the occasional power outage. These problems significantly affect the learning of 65.5% of children. During the lockdown period, 82.3% of children increased their mobile-internet usage. 21% of children commented that the online class was fully effective, 62.3% of the children felt it was moderately effective and 16.8% of the children responded that it was extremely ineffective. 25.5% of children reported having difficulty in understanding lessons and 35.2% of children reported having difficulty in concentrating in class. Seventy-four percent of those surveyed said they had eye strain due to increased screen time,
45.8% had headaches and 18.4% had sleep deprivation. 52 .6% of children are unable to maintain a satisfying relationship with friends while 47.4% maintain relationships through social media. 34.2% of children experience loneliness because of lack of contact with friends. At the same time, 6.1% said they had no grief over the lack of contact with friends. 47.4% of children maintain their friendships through social media. Only 35.2% complete online homework on time. 8.1% often do not do homework. 46.5% have a close relationship with teachers. 37.1% are occasional contacts and 18 .6% are not interacting with teachers at all. 73.9% of children prefer to go to school and have classroom study. Only 7.1% like online class. 18 .7% of children are of the opinion that both methods are the same.
166 children put forward their comments and suggestions as part of this survey. Here are some of the ones we found to be most important: No activity other than learning activities takes place through the online class. Nor are they able to discuss and speak openly about their problems with teachers. The majority of people say that online exams are not very effective. One of the reasons pointed out is the problem faced by children having low typing speed. The children also mentioned the difficulty of using a gadget by two or more children in a household. The extra classes conducted by some schools and the large syllabus that is completed in a short period of time and the homework given as a part of it have made it necessary to use the mobile phone again for that purpose and the screen time of many has gradually increased. Children who do not receive proper supervision and children who are not interested in learning do not utilize online classes properly. The problems faced by the children studying in Plus One classes are serious. Many of them have never met the teachers or classmates in person. Lack of good communication with teachers makes it difficult to understand the lessons accurately and dispel doubts. Recorded videos are the ones more kids love and use than live classes.
The main thing we have observed through the study is that there is no system to accurately understand the effectiveness of online classes.
When the goal of online classes is reduced to completing syllabus portions, it does more harm than good to children. The peculiarity of institutions from different countries which have been the part of UNESCO’s list of best lockdown practices are that they follow the procedures for accurately assessing the quality of education they provide. We can see this as a drawback in the current online classes in Kerala. At the same time, completing the syllabus for the purpose of exams only result in just covering the textbook lessons. At the same time, it is important to pay attention to the mental and social development of the child also. Ensuring the quality of online classes by conducting an examination in Kerala on the model of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) will be beneficial for raising the standard of our education system.
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