CHALLENGES OF HOME LEARNING DURING A PANDEMIC

The COVID – 19 pandemic took the world by surprise.

Globally, everything has stopped. Projects have been delayed, workplaces closed and schools shut
down. The world seems to have ground to a halt because of the novel coronavirus.

However, students continue their education through online learning, via video calls with their
teachers, or using google meet, Microsoft teams or even zoom. The model is currently the best
alternative as keeping schools open poses a safety risk for students. Globally, many countries have
adopted this approach.

For students participating in the home-learning program, online school is confusing to adjust to as
they had not been prepared through simulations or practices before hand. They reported the home-
learning program to be even more stressful than regular classrooms. Some of the common reasons
for this went along the lines of: “normal classes may have been difficult, but having friends makes it
so much more manageable and less stressful. Online classes take out the benefits of having friends
to socialize with and being stuck alone with nothing but assignments.”

Many students participating in home-learning programs also say that the workload of online classes
is larger than that of regular classes. The general consensus is that home-learning programs although
highly beneficial and a good alternative to school as schools are closed, still require some getting
used to by students, as it is a novel concept and not many are experienced with them.

However, although the closing of schools does have a silver lining (home-learning programs where
students are still able to learn), the true sufferers of the government order of school closing are the
students in less fortunate situations and the students who are in schools that are not well-funded.
This is because those students lack the devices and internet access to be able to participate in online
classes, and the schools do not have the capacity to teach online.

This leaves many students in a bad spot where they are unable to receive an education. Although
internet service providers have been giving out free data packages, they are simply not capable of
supporting video calls on programs such as Zoom.

To further complicate things, it seems that COVID-19 will last a while

Despite the lack of nationwide lockdown, schools remain closed, meaning that students who have no
access to a device or internet connection will have a difficult time maintaining their education. Due
to these factors, they will be in a very difficult spot educationally until the COVID-19 pandemic dies
down.

The presence of COVID-19 will directly and permanently change education in the future, seeing that
we must be able to adapt working and studying online for any kind of reasons and situations.

Only time will tell whether online classes will be a good substitute for normal classes, and if they are,
there will be a rise in online educational programs and online schools. We may be sceptical of online
learning, but it is also time to embrace and improve it.
As a parent, I guess it’s the kids more than their parents who are facing a challenge. Imagine a child
who was used to going to school, meeting their friends and accustomed to their teacher’s
methodology of teaching, now have to tolerate their parents’ ways and techniques or the
alternative is their school that’s resorted to video or audio classes which is very monotonous at
times and doesn’t give you a classroom feel where a kid could look around, cross talk with their
classmates and here they are under direct surveillance of their teacher throughout the session.
Adults can quickly adapt themselves but a softbrainer kid would find it challenging, right?

Now, coming onto parents’ challenge, the following could be challenges as per me having kids in
college doing online class and grade 11 and grade 6 having modular class:

1. The online classes run on specific softwares that requires a standard configuration that one needs
to have either on their mobile, laptop or PC besides uninterrupted internet with good speed which
certainly varies a lot of possibility to vary where they live.

While online learning is only one option for the blended approach but not all households have
access to the internet. Numerous posts on Facebook have gone viral, showing students climbing
trees, or even mountains, just to get good internet signal for their classes. Such posts have outrages
both netizens and student groups who have called out educational institutions for prioritizing
academic output over student welfare.

2. The parents might be operating from home too for their WFH work set up wherein their own
office work requires a lot of concentration.

3. The kids all day home in itself might be challenging for few parents so their online classes might
add to the pain of parents.

4. Not all parents are good at multi tasking , in fact it made life miserable for couples where they
have work load that’s difficult to manage all. The online classes have a very different timings than
their regular schooling was. Plus, new issues of their tuitions are also online and more of live video
tutorials. Matching all that might mean the parents have to be on their toes all day long.

5. Some parents opted not to enrol their kids this year due to lack of access to the internet and
technology at home, no work to provide for the family, and safety, given fears of contracting COVID-
19. They said that leaning in this time of the pandemic is only for those who can afford it.

6. Some of the parents are now prioritizing looking for jobs so they could pay bills which have piled
up during lockdown. Education is not their top priority.

7. Parents will play an active role in the learning process. They will be the one to facilitate and guide
their children through the modular lessons that will be sent to students while doing distance
learning.

8. There are parents who are NO READ, NO WRITE. They are sending their children to school
because they don’t want their children to be like them. Who would teach the student now at home?
This kind of modular learning is really difficult. Not all parents are capable of guiding their children.