Coronavirus effect on Education system

How has Coronavirus effected the Education system?

The Coronavirus has left the health of the masses and the world economy gasping for help. Coronavirus has a major effect on the global education system.

The damage is more than it seems to appear. The COVID-19 has not spared even the education system, which has hit globally. With the number of cases in the world rising by every passing day, the Governments are forced to shut down schools and colleges.

This leaves the future of the students to a standstill. With the Coronavirus spreading rapidly across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, countries have taken swift and decisive actions to mitigate the development of a full-blown pandemic.

As of March 13, it was estimated that over 421 million children are affected due to school closures announced or implemented in 39 countries. In addition, another 22 countries have announced partial ‘localized’ closures.

The preventive measures taken by the countries have forced students to seek ‘home-schooling’, especially in countries like China, South Korea, Iran and Italy. With much of inconvenience felt by the students and the teaching faculties, it has however given birth to new examples of educational
innovation.

World education system change in last 3 weeks

COVID-19 has become a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to search for innovative solutions in a relatively short period of time. This is how the world education system has changed over the course of the past 3 weeks:

1. Online learning is given importance: To help slow the virus-spread, students
   • Hong Kong started to learning at home, in February, via interactive apps.
   • In China, 120 million Chinese got access to learning material through live TV broadcasts.
   • In a Nigerian school, standard asynchronous online learning tools such as reading material via Google Classroom, were augmented with synchronous face-to-face video instruction.
   • In a Lebanon school, students began leveraging online learning, even for subjects such as physical education. Students shot and sent over their own videos of athletic training and sports to their teachers as ‘homework’, pushing students to learn new digital skills.
   • The advancement of technology has been bridging the gap in the education system that the Coronavirus perhaps failed to implement.

2. Public-private educational partnerships growing: Diverse stakeholders, including Governments, publishers, education professionals, technology providers and telecom network operators are coming together.
   They intend to utilize digital platforms as a temporary solution to the crisis.
   In China, the Ministry of Education has assembled a group of diverse constituents to develop a new cloud based, online learning and broadcasting platform as well as to upgrade a suite of education infrastructure, led by the Education Ministry and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
   Education system has been receiving attention beyond the Government-funded project.
3. Widening of digital division: With the education system seeing its benefit in the hands of digital platform, it also has a dark side.
   Only 60% population of the world is online, which makes it tough for poor people to access internet, and thus, education in the face of the global pandemic.

   While students in developed countries are thriving on virtual classes, students in developing nations are replying on notes sent via WhatsApp or email. Also, the less digital savvy students are left behind in the race to study online.

   When classes transition online, these children lose out because of the cost of digital devices and data plans. It is only when the cost of accessing internet decrease with a rise of access in all countries the gap in education quality will reduce.

The widespread pandemic is a wakeup call for students, globally, to develop skills such as informed decision making, creative problem solving, and above all, adaptability.