The mortality rate of COVID-19 up till now is in not any way comparable to the Spanish Flu ofthe 20th century that engulfed an estimated 50 million lives. But the intensity of phobia that it has prevailed is certainly unmatchable.Even the most powerful countries are forced to shut down their operations. After a bit of hemming and hawing, the government of Pakistanhas also announced the lockdownof its provinces in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
At this fragile time, it is not only our economy that is faltering but educationis also in shambles. As per instructions of the provincial education departments and HECs,all schools, colleges and universities have been shut down.Board and semester exams are at halt. In these wretched circumstances, it seems that education will badly suffer.
Though educational institutes have instructed teachers to take their classes and exams online, it begs a question: are our teachers adequately equipped to create new online forums or to effectively use the already established ones? Online learning forums appear interesting to use but they are not as effective as real time classroom experience fora few reasons.
Why don’t academicians think about utilising online forums in the form of apps and channels to deliver quality education?
Firstly,we must admit that the majority of our teachers in public or private sector educational institutions-beit schools, colleges or universities-areabove 40 years and do not have familiarity with online learning tools. So, shifting them to new software is a bit difficult task in this perilous time. Online lecturing, maintaining student attendance and concentration, evaluating assignments and giving them real time classroom experience would be rather hard.
Secondly,due to a sudden decision about shutting down of educational institutions, no training workshops were conducted by them to train teachers and students.After one week of shutdown, teachers and students are still confounded about online forums, and it is not reaping fruits as anticipated.
Thirdly, there are subjects that need lab work and hands-onpractice.These subjects can be learned theoretically but their practicality can’t be comprehended through online forums. If the lockdown situation gets worse and educational institutes remain shut even after the 5th of April,students will face a greater brunt than other people.
Fourthly, most teachers have been using conventional teaching materials and methods that are available to their students in hard forms rather than in soft forms. Such vast learning material can’t be shifted to online forums in this little time.
In this emergency shutdown of educational institutions, we have come to know that our teaching pedagogies lag behindmany Asian countries. We still haven’tshiftedour curriculum to tech-based teaching styles and systems. Online or biometric attendance at campuses might give us a feel that our systems are getting elevated but what about the teaching pedagogies that still are conventional and archaic?
We have been using internet-based technology since the last two decades but we couldn’t create our own online educational forums. If we have to recommend, for instance, to our medical science students, we recommend them lectures by Dr Najeeb or Kenhub or Khan Academy.There are hand-count online educational forums by Pakistanis. Resultantly, we are dependent on online education channels of other countries.Although science subjects could be catered through those channels but Pakistan studies, Islamic history, literature in native languages and social sciences can’t be found on these forums. It is a sad state of affairs that no such visionwas ever nurtured in educational institutions to create new online learning forums that could benefit our students.
If we review our teaching pedagogies, we may find that they are not up to international standards by any means. In an era of robotics where artificial intelligence performs most of our work, we still insist on teaching students through old and conventional styles. I wish I could name here some universities where the “notes” system is confidently practised by both teachers and students. The handmade notes were made by some teachers years ago and are still taughtwithout any upgradationdespite the world and sciences have enormously changed in the last fifteen years. Those teachers would never want to shift this easysystem toscientifically intelligence-based system. They will be amongthe weakest online,delivering lectures and keeping stable communication with students.
COVID-19 could be a “blessing in disguise” for us in various ways. It is a watershed moment. We can ameliorate our teaching systems through technology. It rendersan opportunity to shift all the curriculum and teaching methodologies to online learning forums. Just like Slideshare and Edmodo, we can create our own, subject wise, online forums, and even in native languages.In the past we have seen Hassan Askari and Pervez Hoodbhoy giving educational lectures on PTV but that chain discontinued. It is a failure of government andacademic institutions that couldn’t cope with the impending era of digital classrooms.
The future is of digital classrooms. Now that we have come across this crisis, government needs to prepare SOPs for the use of technology in the education sector with greater emphasis on e-learning. Government must appreciate and support those educational institutions and academicians who take steps in creating new online forums. Entrepreneurs must step forward and collaborate with academicians in bringing transformation in the education sector.We see millions of purposeless Tiktok accounts and YouTube channels that do no service to society. Why don’t academicians think about utilising online forums in the form of apps and channels todeliver quality education?
If Google classroom, Zoom, Skype and WhatsApp video call appshad not been invented by now, we wouldn’t have had any other channel to communicate with students in these testingtimes Imagine!
The writer is a lecturer at Superior University, Lahore. He is also a youth correspondent to Commonwealth in Pakistan. He can be reached at [email protected]