UNESCO has reported that “Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. These nationwide closures are impacting over 60% of the world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localized closures impacting millions of additional learners.”
According to Syngene Research in 2019, the global online learning market is predicted to reach $336.98 billion by the year 2026. Despite this, currently, there is major turbulence in the e-learning world due to certain factors. The sudden shift from on-campus learning to online learning due to the pandemic of COVID-19 was unanticipated; hence no one was prepared for it. Umbreen Arif, being an important education advisor to Pakistan’s central government estimated that more than 50 million students of schools and universities in Pakistan now face the daunting damage of falling behind in their academics. In a country like Pakistan where 22.8 million children out of 70 million do not even go to school, this hit to education is not something that the youth of Pakistan might be able to survive well.
There is no doubt that e-learning is one of the best solutions at the moment to avoid the spread of COVID-19 but this kind of distance learning has harmed the academic trajectory of many students all over the world. The challenges are being faced by not only students but teachers too, both sides are trying to integrate themselves into this new world and some countries have succeeded but some have still not got a hang of it.
Teachers’ Shortcoming: Tech Illiteracy
In developed countries where digital tools have been made a part of academia, the teachers did not receive too big of a technological shock. But for many countries’ education systems, the pandemic turned out to be a death sentence and this includes Pakistan. Due to the lack of national resources, poverty level, stagnant technological growth, and lack of tech-savvy teachers, the system of e-learning has majorly failed in many regions. Teachers are not the culprit because they had never been put in such a position before.
In many countries, teachers were they ever required to integrate technology in their teaching methods which is why they never even gave it a second thought. Essentially it is the responsibility of the educational institutions to provide training to teachers on how to use gadgets and plan a quality lesson that can be delivered digitally. One challenge was that the pandemic and ensuing lockdown was sudden which meant that there was not enough time to train the teachers.
“The biggest problem is there is not enough time to do the training that a teacher needs to understand how to teach online,” stated Jennifer Mathes, who is the interim chief executive officer of the Boston-based Online Learning Consortium. There were some hasty efforts made to train the teachers but Mathes rightly says, “What we are doing right now is more of a Band-Aid to say these are tips and tricks to do remote learning now.”
Students Burden
E-learning and blended learning are not something that the students are familiar with. According to many students, they are not able to absorb the content as much as they used to do in on-campus classes. Even teachers have noticed this, Dr. Muhammad Zaki Haji Zaini, a lecturer at Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University (UNISSA) commented, “During a face-to-face lecture, I walk around to ensure students can capture what is explained during lessons, and this was not possible in online platforms. Students were also reluctant to admit that they were not able to understand what was taught in the class. I had to closely monitor my students and incorporate relevant coursework that would be able to capture the objectives of my courses.”
One common practice that can be observed is that the quantity of assignments, projects, or homework, in general, has increased since the system of e-learning has been integrated. The assumption seems to be that since students spend more hours at home, they have more time to cram in work which is not always the case. “We get more homework than learning materials, so we spend more time working on them. Sometimes we stay up until 11 pm to reach deadlines,” this comment was made to The Conversation Indonesia by a 16-year-old student named Hazel. The result of this is that students feel burdened, are falling behind in academics, and not fully benefiting from the system.
Challenges Faced on Both Ends of the Spectrum
Many people have the privilege of owning smartphones, laptops, or computers but a huge population does not and they are suffering in the world of e-learning. When the Pakistani government announced the shift towards online learning, there was uproar in the student community because many of them do not have access to any digital device or even an internet connection. On the 9th of June, students of different universities of Islamabad held a protest against the government’s decision as not only is there a lack of availability of digital devices, see digital divide. The majority of them have an unstable internet connection which also proves to be problematic in learning. It is a gross oversight of government regarding such students who are not responsible for the conditions.
These are just some of the problems that have been brought to light today but the fact is that there are many more that are being suffered by students and teachers all over the world. In Pakistan, where home broadband is not cheap for people who do not live in the big cities, cellphone penetration only stands at 51% in the year 2020, and around only 1 million children can access digital devices or the internet, the present and future of education looks bleak. The nation hopes that the government will soon come up with effective education policies that will strive to provide education to all in a safe manner whilst facilitating the teachers in every way possible.
