How students and teachers voyaged from physical classroom to Emergency Remote Teaching in COVID-19 crisis: A case of Nepal

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shift from traditional to remote teaching globally. Most schools in Nepal, however, could not adopt remote teaching. Only some schools, particularly those located in urban areas initiated remote teaching after the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. This article, thus, reports an analysis of secondary students and teachers' experiences of remote learning. It as qualitative research employed semi-structured interview and observation of online classes to investigate students' ways of managing remote learning and teachers' strategies of teaching through online mode. This paper reports that both students and teachers were, at first, intimidated by the new mode of learning. Remote learning, albeit it was observed as an alternative mode of education where there was minimum information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, seems to increase the digital divide in rural areas. Students, particularly from government schools, struggled to manage their remote learning due to limited access to digital technology, the sudden shift from the physical classroom to remote learning and a lack of government support. Thus, parents play a vital role in influencing their children's attitudes toward remote learning. It is essential to equip students and teachers with ICT and minimal ICT skills and provide with subsidy on digital devices and the internet for students to completely implement remote learning.