Effects of COVID -19 on Education and Jobs – How India Overcome from this and the Importance of Online Education – A new Journey

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Effects of COVID 19 on Education and Jobs

Coronavirus outbreak hit the world at the start of the year 2020. It initially started in China in the Wuhan province last year. This dangerous virus started impacting other countries slowly and many people started getting infected from this deadly disease. The World Health Organization recommended maintaining social distance, wearing a mask while going outside and staying at home at all costs. This led to many countries announcing lockdown.

Coronavirus or Covid-19 became a pandemic and affected many things throughout the world. People could no longer go to offices, public places, schools, etc. and were asked to stay at home. Businesses got affected and many companies started shutting down. People started losing their jobs in a large number.

As days passed, new information related to this deadly virus started coming in light. Doctors started updating people with newly developed symptoms and treatments. Every country is now trying to prepare a vaccine to fight this disease. The preparation is still under process and the vaccine is expected to become available next year.

Talking about India, the Government of India announced lockdown in the last week of March this year to prevent the spread of Covid-19. This led to many new changes. Employees started work from home and schools went online and started conducting online classes. The market got closed and business was affected. This led to both economic crisis and health crisis.

In this article, we will discuss the impact of Covid-19 in the education system and the job sector, how India overcomes the issues in both the sector and how online teaching is important in the current context.

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How has COVID-19 has changed the education system and what was the impact?

Coronavirus has impacted every sector like retail, education, agriculture, oil and gas, aviation, automobile, etc. When India has crossed a mark of 20 lakhs cases in August, it has become more difficult to make the situation back to normal right now. Students and teachers are struggling every day to cope with changing situations.

Let us see one by one how Coronavirus has changed our education system:

1.    Postponed and cancellation of 10th and 12th Board examinations

2.    Closed school and college premises

3.    Classes shifted to online mode through video calling apps like Zoom, Google Meet, etc.

4.    Assignments shared online and tests being taken through online mode.

5.    Postponement of Undergraduate and Postgraduate level entrance examinations such as JEE Main, GATE, CAT, IPU CET, etc.

6.    Uncertainty of final year examinations of UG and PG students as the hearing in the Supreme Court has been taking place and no final decision has been taken yet.

Related – COVID-19 Impact on Global Education, School, Colleges, and Universities

 

Impact of Covid-19 on Education Sector:

1.    As our country got under lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, on-going 10th and 12th board examinations in March 2020 got postponed for an uncertain future. Many examinations got canceled afterward due to the current situation.

2.    Schools and colleges got closed and have not been opened yet. The new session of the school and a new session of college is yet to start for which the date is not finalized.

3.    Teachers started taking online classes through video calling applications. Assignments and tests shifted from offline mode to online mode.

4.    Entrance examinations are rescheduled and hence admissions of students are postponed.

5.    Final year students are impacted a lot as they are yet to give final year examination or terminal semester examination and many of them fear of not getting a job in the market due to the current on-going crisis.

6.    Final year students who want to study further are under crisis as they are not able to take admission in the institution they wish for and still struggling to complete their current degree.

7.    As the hearing for final year examination is still taking place in Supreme Court, all the students are hanging in between.

Also, see – JEE Main 2020 Admit Card released: steps to download

 

How COVID-19 affected the Job Sector in India?

Coronavirus has been impacting the job sector for quite some time now. With everything under a temporary lockdown from March to May, many business were temporarily closed. This led to an economic crisis and hence thousands of people started losing their jobs. Some of the problems being faced in the job sector are as follows:

1.    Since the start of lockdown in March, companies shifted to Work from the Home schedule. This led to problems in work and personal life balance. Companies are forcing employees to work for longer hours with no time left for personal life and sleep.

2.    Now with Covid-19, companies are trying their best to save the business. For that, one of the solutions along with long working hours and no weekend is salary cut.

3.    While many employees are not getting a full salary, many of them haven’t got a salary from the past few months.

4.    To recover the economic crisis, employers are firing their employees blindly.

5.    The companies who are offering a job in this situation are offering less salary to the candidates.

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How India overcome the effect of COVID-19 in the education system and jobs?

To overcome the effect of Covid-19 in the education system and jobs, the following steps are being taken in India:

  • With the help of internet connectivity and devices like smartphones or laptops, schools are conducting classes through online mode. It has supported the idea of digitization in our country.
  • Teachers are taking tests in the form of MCQs, and short answers through online mode. It has reduced the wastage of paper and saved a lot of time for both students and teachers.
  • Online Education platforms are coming forward in this pandemic to help students in teaching in minimal charges. Online videos for each topic and online notes are being provided to the students. They have become the virtual tutor for the students in this crisis.
  • UGC has decided to cancel intermediate semester exams and to mark the students based on assignments and internal examinations.
  • The decision for conducting final year examination is still under hearing in the Supreme Court. UGC had originally decided to schedule terminal semester examinations before September 30, 2020, for which the students filed a petition against this decision in Supreme Court.
  • Every entrance exam in India for the admission of UG and PG courses is postponed and will be rescheduled shortly.
  • Some universities and colleges have conducted online examinations for the final year.
  • Companies have shifted to Work from Home (WFH) to overcome this situation and prevent employees to come to the office daily.
  • Even when some companies have started working from office premises, they are still giving flexibility to employees who are not able to start working from the office. They have permitted to continue work from home until the situation becomes normal.
  • Employees are being called thrice a week to the office for work to maintain social distancing norms.

 

How are students studying online – A new journey?

As we have already talked about online classes being taken by schools since March, it certainly led to many problems as well. A few of the many issues were access to the internet and devices for online video classes.

Many students come from a family where they cannot afford good internet connection or smartphones or laptops. Several people share mobile devices or laptops and may be relied on that device for multiple tasks at the same time. In some cases, technological advancement can become a hindrance to students and teachers.

But online teaching has also been a life savior for students and teachers who can continue their classes irrespective of their location. This has increased flexibility of time and location. It has made students get information shared by teachers easily. Students are now exposed to the whole new digital world.

 

How is online teaching important in the current context?

Digitization has changed the way we look at things. Now everything is accessible through the internet. The Internet has certainly changed the way we communicate and intake information daily. When Coronavirus hit the world, the internet came to our rescue for many things. Schools went online and now online teaching has become a new normal thing for students.

Online teaching offers time flexibility to both students and teachers. They can fix any timing for classes according to their best availability. It has also offered the flexibility of the location of this pandemic. Everyone can access online classes with their convenience and geographical location.

It has made information sharing easier through file-sharing mode available in online video calling. It makes everyone follow social distancing norms recommended by WHO. It has made students learn more about digital platforms. It has made life convenient for college students who are pursuing online courses or internships while taking online college classes at home.