Daily Times

Corona virus has resulted in sever economic, social and political crisis of global proportions of course stopped by the health crisis resulting in hundreds of thousands of lives. The worldwide lockdown has resulted in closure of entire business and trading sectors of the countries the educational sector has also suffered serious setback. it is estimated that over 500 million students all over the globe had t ceased their academic activities during the lockdown. while countries with connectivity and technical resources have adopted to online learning at various levels but covid-19 has created an educational global educational crisis with multiple social scholastic and learning setbacks. the major issues are 1. It has accentuated the digital divide amongst the state and within the states has shown highlighted digital unequality rather digitalunequality prevalent in the world. 2. the educational systems in most of the countries are ill prepared for any Global crisis 3. the shutdown has particularly effected primary and Secondary education since online education at the primary and secondary level is not available The closure of schools has impacted the health of the children since in many countries school is also place of provision of nutritious food and space for physical activities of the children. The school closure has meant depriving the children of the vital nutrition which will have consequences for their nourishment and Physical health as well as deprivation of space for sports and other extracurricular activities will have impact on their mental emotional and psychological health.4. the University Campus is a training ground for Aspiring young girls and boys to Sharpen their social skills, and develop social networks which are so vital to the professional work after graduation.5. Physical class at a school or university is an indispensable space where teachers and students interact and give feedback on subjects being taught.6. subjects which require use of lab cannot be taught online without actually putting the students to perform those experiments. particularly medical science and other subjects with intense library and lab requirements have to be taught on campus in a classroom and the, laboratory.

The province of Sindh was the first one to close schools and Universities in March 2020 other provinces followed and closed their schools and colleges and Universities. While the schools at all levels remained closed some universities substituted their physical classes with online learning. HEC also sprang into action and provided some digital and quality control support to the universities and continued their spring semester .

The Covid -19 has severely affected primary and secondary schools and the government had to take an undesirable decision of promoting students of grade 9 10 and ,11 to next classes without an examination. This decision has definitely distorted the competition among the students and my concern is that there would be several learning deficiencies in the students which could negatively impact their performance in competitive exams.

Academic Institutions cannot be closed forever or even as long as a vaccine is found which could take about 1 to 2 years therefore the academic Institutions will have to adopt and create a Hybrid Learning System

The projections vary as to when the crisis will end. This uncertainty demands innovative solutions and entirely conversion to online learning would definitely deprive students of the learning environment at a campus. Academic Institutions cannot be closed forever or even as long as a vaccine is found which could take about 1 to 2 years therefore the academic Institutions will have to adopt and create a Hybrid Learning System. What I am proposing is a staggered school schedule in which the student body could be divided into 3 cohorts and each cohort attend school for 2 days with proper social distance created in the classes and remaining 4 days a week the students could be given homework as well as taught online where internet accessibility is available. the practice of dispensing of examination must not be repeated in future if coronavirus pandemic persists for another year. Universities should prepare hybrid modules and resume education immediately, while insuring the health of the teachers and students by creating safe learning spaces in class rooms, Libraries, canteens and labs with safe social distancing, installation of sanitization Gates at the entrance of universities, adopting high hygiene standards in public places like washrooms canteen of the university, the libraries could be modelled to keep safe social distance , students who use public transport can pool up and use on line app taxi and shuttle services which we hope would be resumed shortly . These public services like Uber Careem, air lift etc could be asked to provide special service for students management and teachers of academic institutions with social distance and high hygiene standards . The federal and Provincial Governments should take initiative and resume academic activities in the country in coordination with the academic institutions.

The writer is former Ambassador of Pakistan to Vietnam