COVID 19 And Looming Education Crisis – 6 Devastating Effects

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COVID 19 A Wake Up Call For Pakistani Researchers

As per United Nations Organization report, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education system in human history. It has affected nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries. The closures of schools, colleges and other learning institutions have affected 94 percent of world’s student population. In this article we will know how COVID-19 pandemic is creating education crisis in Pakistan and other parts of the world.

COVID-19 Pandemic A Divine Curse Or Cure?

To cope with the rapid spread of Corona Virus in public, government decided to implement lockdown policy to keep people at home and thus minimizes social interaction. The policy though helped a lot in fighting the pandemic; it however resulted in the decrease of economic activities such as production and sale of goods and services. This affected public schools’ budget in one way or another which mostly comes from sale tax.

COVID 19 And Looming Education Crisis

COVID 19 pandemic and the successive lockdowns have already affected learning progress of students all over the world. If the lockdown and closure of school and colleges policy proceeded like way it will devastated the future of many learners around the globe. Students will not be able to cover curriculum of their previous grades.

COVID-19 Pandemic Myths And Reality

Due to successive lockdown and closure of schools and colleges for months many parents have refused to pay their children’s school and college fee. This has created odd situation for many learning institutions particularly low cost private schools in the country which are unable to pay salaries to its staff on their own. This situation has increased the possibility of their closure which will not only increase unemployment in the country but will also risk the future of many learners.

The pandemic has also increased the rate of dropout in school and colleges. Hunger, unemployment and poverty are the major reasons behind it.

COVID 19 Exposed Health Disparities in Pakistan

One of the major flaws in online learning system in Pakistan that lockdown highlighted is the lack of proper internet infrastructure in the country. Internet service in the country particularly in its remote areas is very poor and users often face the problem of frequent disconnection. Due to this reason students often miss some of their classes.

Arrangement of online classes needs additional resources plus a proper setup that most of the low cost private schools does not possess. This has increased the lack of uniformity in schooling system in the country which is already facing the challenge.  

Impacts of COVID-19 on Social Life in Pakistan

With exposing flaws in country’s internet infrastructure the online learning system has also created many new challenges in the learning process such as the need of an online assessment system for students and their attendance in the class. Other challenges include the access of every student to internet, the availability of relevant data online and the security of server to overcome its hacking and ensure the assessment to be fair and up to the mark.

Impacts Of COVID-19 on Pakistan Economy

Shutdown of schools and colleges due to the pandemic is not option. Education cannot wait and therefore we must find alternative ways for continuing the education our young generation. At the moment we must improve our online learning system because the future of education system is linked with it.