In the past more than a month, there have been multiple announcements suspending attendance at schools, universities and educational institutions. The COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant uncertainty has impacted students, schools and educational institutes across the globe. These changes have certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they have also prompted new examples of educational innovation.
According to UNESCO, most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. These nationwide closures are impacting over 91% of the world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localized closures impacting millions of additional learners.
The pandemic has not only given the digital world a new shift in the educational system but also brought in newer solutions in the form of future transformation. Traditional classroom learning which had been upgraded to Smart classroom are now outdated according to global standards while the world of 5G is becoming more prevalent.
Rising to the occasion, Indian test preparation major Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) has adopted various measures to mitigate the impact that institute closures may have on students’ learning process. These measures ensure that students can study from the safety of their own homes and there is continuity in their study schedule.
“The faculty at Aakash is well connected with students across the country through Aakash Live, our live teaching module. Aakash live, disseminates teaching via virtual classrooms that offer affordable solutions and quality teaching, wherein students can also clarify their doubts live sitting miles away,” said the Regional Director, Aakash Educational Services Limited, Amit Singh Rathore.
He has also informed about the launch of online crash courses besides the teacher’s involvement through interactive methods to make learning at home easy and engaging. Aakash has also launched Live Online Crash Courses for students to help them prepare for medical and engineering entrance examinations such as NEET and JEE (Main & Advanced).
The Sustainability Director of Techno India Group, Pauline Laravoire informed about deploying Techno Supports (technosupports.com) aiming to provide relief to communities and households (mental health support, isolation centers on its campuses, transportation of medical staff, donation of essentials to needy beneficiaries).
“Techno India Group has 100 campuses in the multiple Indian States, caters to students of very diverse backgrounds. During the lockdown, it was, therefore, the Group’s utmost responsibility to empower each institution and each faculty member to reach out to their own students, by training them about e-learning through the most accessible platforms, from WhatsApp to internal LMS, Zoom and Google Classroom,” Pauline informed.
The uncertainity and time limit by when we are going to be fully free from the virus is unknown, but the optional teaching methods are quite interesting as they also adds to a new dimension of teaching method by making learning more interesting for the students, but many are deprived of the facilities.
Author Nibedita Sen is a Defence Correspondent turned Fact-checker, now associated with Alt News. Nibedita is awarded by the Government of Goa, two times for her contribution in the field of Media and Journalism.
