Daily Times

In the year 2020, the Government of Pakistan had to order the closure of educational institutes until further orders on account of the fact that the number of COVID-19 infection cases augmented across the country. This closure of colleges, schools, and varsities had triggered chief distraction in the educational system. As per UNESCO, around 1.725 billion students are presently affected globally.

Learning at school is a significant instrument that bequeaths to complete growth of the students. It is responsible for the growth of an individual’s communal skills, personality growth, and increase in motor skills by participation in activities of co-curricular sort. Time spent at school is an enjoyable one for the students/kids as they enjoy the opportunity to spend time with their peers and are enthused and inspired by their tutors at the same time. When children attend school, they abide by a learning timetable built on set deadlines and hence work in an ordered way. It is obvious that with a projected figure of 22 million school-going children, Pakistan has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world.   This ever-growing number of uneducated youth spells danger for the future of our nation, especially when considering that more than half are girls who are neither learning nor playing useful roles in society.  While this situation looks rather grim at first, there appears to be light visible at the end of the dark tunnel thanks to “Covid-19”.  The best part about Covid-19 is that it has helped knowledge easily reach all areas including remote villages and tribal areas where education initiatives by the government have failed so miserably before.

Covid-19 though a pandemic but has still been an absolute blessing for Pakistan’s education sector which was once at the mercy of untrained teachers who were unable to provide proper learning materials to children.  At this time, it seemed like our country was destined to remain behind the rest because we did not have any sort of plan or even any idea about how technology could be useful in our schools.   That is why Covid-19 can rightly be called a blessing in disguise because it has enabled us to provide the basic education that every child needs without any disruption whatsoever.  Even the children could learn a lot despite the deadly virus.

Covid-19 has truly made a huge difference because it has transformed our education sector.   It has enabled us to provide children with any sort of online textbooks, workbooks, etc. that they may need for their classes which was an impossible task before its arrival on the scene.   Even if some schools are able to scrape by with some papers and notebooks, most do not have anything at all. Not only has the virus allowed us to offer textbooks but has also given Pakistan’s students access to other essential materials such as movies on health, hygiene, social issues, and environmental protection so that they stay up to date on current affairs while having fun at the same time.

It can hence be deduced and concluded that Covid19 is not only to be taken as a devastating pandemic because it does have a positive side too. It serves as a blessing in disguise for humanity. We are now well conversant with the notion of ‘Safety for all.’  We can name this virus as a teacher, which has taught us necessary lessons of health, hygiene, and online learning which were undoubtedly the need of the hour. It has given a new dimension to the concept of ‘Work from Home’. It reduces the risk of accidents. It also minimizes our cost of fuel and hence reduces potential threats to the environment such as pollution and depletion of the Ozone layer. It has opened for us new vistas of knowledge. We are now more broadminded than ever before. This pandemic has openly introduced us to the online mode of education, which is the best alternative to physical classes not only in times of crisis but also in times of peace, the example of which could be the blended mode of learning. This teacher (Corona pandemic) has prepared us for the possible threats of the future in advance. We are now more and more concerned with washing our hands, sanitizing them, and observing social distancing. Wearing the mask is yet another magic that saves us from being infected by viruses such as Flu, Malaria, Dengue, Corona, etc. The Covid19 pandemic has taught technology to both the teachers and their students and they now seem to be at par with the growing needs of the modern world.