Paradigmatic Shift in the Education System in a Time of COVID 19.

ABSTRACT

The rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide in 2019 – 2020 has had a great impact on educational institutes. Global closure of educational institutions to maintain social distancing and isolation has led to a gap in learning and development. Prolonged closures can lead to interrupted learning, parents’ unpreparedness for distance learning, and home schooling, gaps in childcare, unequal access to digital learning portals, increased pressure on education systems that remain open, and probable chances of a rise in dropout rates and social isolation. Most institutions, globally, in the affected areas, are looking for stop-gap solutions to carry on teaching, and the factor significantly affecting the quality of learning is the level and quality of digital access. Digitalization being big evolutionary step, will reshape the entire education system in future. Digitalization has changed the course of distance learning leading to online computer-based learning. COVID 19 pandemic brought about a new paradigmatic shift in learning from frontal education system to online digital learning, thus bringing about a truly new learning experience.In response to the rapid spread of COVID-19, preventive measures such as social-distancing and self-isolation have resulted in the global closure of educational institutions.(1) Since educational institutes are hubs of social activity and human interaction, their closure has led to a lack of social contact among children and youth, which is essential to learning and development. School closures are critical social distancing tools to mitigate the spread of the disease and avoid an increase of cases, thus reducing the strain on health services. While closures of educational institutes appear as a logical solution to achieve social distancing within communities, prolonged closures tend to produce a negative impact on most students, such as interrupted learning, parents unpreparedness for distance learning and home schooling, gaps in childcare, unequal access to digital learning portals, increased pressure on education systems that remain open, and a probable chance of a rise in dropout rates and social isolation.