Challenges of higher education amid Covid

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the institutional education system in the country has suffered a lot. Higher educational institutions had to be closed. In fact, all institutions issued orders to conduct online classes.

Barring some top institutions like IITs and IIMs, there is a lack of adequate technical resources and skills to conduct online classes anywhere, but it was imagined that all teachers and students had the adequate resources to teach and learn online. The teachers did as much online teaching as possible by arranging their personal resources like laptops, smart phones, teaching boards, internet etc. The teachers who were not aware of this technology certainly faced difficulty and hence the students suffered.

The students who did not have laptops, smart phones, high speed internet at home were deprived of online education. These were mainly the students living in remote villages. Efforts were made by the governments and institutions to make the e-content of the course available to the students, but it proved inadequate.

Along with studies, the evaluation system of the students also collapsed during the Covid period. Reputed institutions in the country have conducted examinations on the online mode. The examinees at home were monitored to some extent through online cameras during the examination.

Central universities like DU, BHU, University of Hyderabad, Allahabad University adopted the open book model of the examination in which the student was provided with an online question paper and he appeared at home and submitted the answer sheet online. The open book model has already received a lot of criticism. According to an estimate, about 350 universities in the country conducted the examination on online mode during the pandemic. Most of the state universities conducted formalities in the name of examination. In most of the universities, final year students were tested, and the rest were promoted to the next class without examination.

The pandemic caused immense difficulties for students in disciplines like medical, engineering. Due to closure of the institutes, the students could not go to the laboratories and hence were deprived of necessary experimental knowledge. They may have to bear the brunt of it in their careers.

Now, the government and the universities have to think about how to compensate the loss of education to the students.