Text books amidst E-learning

Due to the situation of Covid-19, most schools have switched to digital platforms or E-learning whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.  Approximately, 1.2 billion children are out of their classrooms. Both students and teachers are facing problems due to the non-availability of the textbooks. Earlier, an order had been issued from the district administration stating that home delivery of books would be issued but did not come into action yet.

According to Jyoti Kumar, Patna district Education officer, that reopening of book shops and schools for selling books would be treated as a breach of lockdown and the department can take strict action against them. He also mentioned that All schools and book distributors are instructed to wait until the district administration issued an advisory and chalks out a plan for the sale and distribution of books.
Also, Private School and Children Welfare Association (PSCWA) made an initiative and wrote a letter to the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, and seek permission to open schools for the distribution of books.

Ms. Shamael Ahmad, National president of Private School and Children Welfare Association (PSCWA), said that schools have drastically shifted to online and electronic teaching but children are not habituated to study online. One could never understand the need and importance of textbooks in online studies. The prolonged use of mobile phones and computer screens are impacting on the life of the children.
While practicing proper hygiene, sanitization, and social-distancing, the state government must give relaxation to schools to re-open to distribute textbooks.

Some disadvantages of online classes are as follows:

1. Feedback is limited: There is more interaction in traditional classes as teachers could give immediate face-to-face feedback to students. Personalized feedbacks leaves a great impression and helps in learning and grasping things better. It makes the learning process fun, easier, richer, and more significant. Whereas, In online mode feedback is limited.
2.  It can cause social isolation: Online classes or E-learning methods develop the feeling of remoteness, contemplation, and lack of interaction in students. As a result, both students and teachers started experiencing social isolation due to the lack of human communication in their lives.
3. Evaluating assignments is complicated: There are multiple methods of cheating and completing assignments in online education. As a result, it becomes more difficult for teachers to evaluate. Students can neither be tested nor be observed in online mode. Moreover, students also face technical issues.

Other disadvantages include:

•  Online education is inaccessible to the computer illiterate population
•  Online learning is limited to certain disciplines
•  Lack of face-to-face communication
• Lack of accreditation and quality insurance

By- Sakshi Bhardwaj