While there have been a lot of events that have been happening starting from demonetization to make us realize that we have no other option left but to shift to digital dependency, this whole COVID Lockdown has made it necessary for obtaining education too. Even as things will get better, it will be tough on the schools’ and parents’ part to send their kids to school without worrying about their safety. Probably schools will be the last resort that will be allowed to open once everything will become assumedly fine. And of course, we will stay worried about the second wave hitting our country just like it happened in other countries like China, Iran, Germany, South Korea and New Zealand. We can only hope that the vaccines being researched turn out efficacious.

And therefore it seems that this whole lockdown has brought a shift in the education system. So, something which we was earlier assumed for about the next 5-10 years will be seen in the next 1-2 years itself. School administration as well as parents will need to work towards making themselves digitally efficient while they are becoming physically less reliant. There are some companies such as Square, Shopify, Groupe PSA, Slack, etc. that are even planning to stick to work-from-home post normalization.

There will be a major necessity for digital literacy. Probably much of tutorials, announcements, classes, attendance, events, meetings, homework, assessments, and mark sheets will shift to a digital sphere. A lot of staff, teachers, parents, and students will be given workshops and training on how to make themselves better equipped digitally. This will be a new normal and everyone will have to adapt to the changing times.

Usually, people think that the major problem will come from the resilience in adapting to the digital reality. Some people might even find difficulty in learning new ways and approaches. There has been a discussion around the digital divide in India since the past some time now, focusing on the difference it is bringing amongst the privileged and the non-privileged. At the same time, the Indian system runs in quite a traditional way and the last generation of teachers was allowed to hit and beat kids for, as they said, their betterment. So, a country that has already been going through a lot of transformations in the education system, trying to catch up with the times with heavy panting, hopefully, will not suffocate in shifting to the digital space. Education is going to become as major a challenge as Health and Unemployment are right now in the country.

E-learning can tend to create more ‘Swiss Cheese Gaps’ in the learning of the students where they will need to hop over different and all concepts without grasping their understanding and clarity as is required. The schools will be bound to cover and be formally done with the topics included in the syllabus, leaving it on the student’s hard work and willingness to study and remember what they are being taught. As it is observed even in the classrooms that some students take time in learning as compared to other students and it is totally okay and natural too, the same when happens in online classes will end up leaving much broader Swiss Cheese Gap amongst the students, leaving that extra pressure on the students and their parents.

However, the good part is that students can refer to a lot of other online study materials in the form of videos and lectures which a student can rewind and watch again and again — something which is really exhausting for the teachers to do in person. It is however yet to see how much pros and cons will we actually reap through this shifting system.

Moreover, going digital is definitely bound to create a lot of differences between the different class of students. The difference between the privilege and under-privilege is bound to increase, and education will become co-dependent on parenting. Many of the students may even eventually shift to online learning instead of attending regular colleges, for example.

Hence, this shift is going to create a lot of different kinds of gaps among the children coming from different kinds of backgrounds and history. But the brighter side of this shift can be that every student might come out with their own uniqueness instead of creating masses of similar talents and skills, but are we ready to accept this diversity and come out of our herd mentality, without risking a system of equal opportunity for all?