The pandemic situation, with the spreading coronavirus, caused a huge disruption in every sector. It even changed the education sector forever. The schools and colleges shut down all of a sudden, and teaching started remotely and on digital platforms. This unanticipated shift away from the classroom brought a dramatic change in education and distinctive rise in e-learning. Not just the students, teachers and school administrators also experienced the repercussions.
To shed some light on this global phenomenon, K12 News, the biggest educational news platform, conducted the mega talk show K12 Talks 2021. This was an online event that was held from 1st to 7th December 2021. It was the second season where Principals, Directors and Chairman of renowned schools and educational institutions on boarded the episodes to share their experiences and opinions over pandemic situations.
While some talked about the positive side of lockdown, other guest educators shared their experiences on the negative impacts kids and teachers have suffered.
Dr Jitesh Khanna Founder & CEO of Saiprastha Promoter Pvt. Ltd talked about the brighter side of the lockdown period. He said it was an opportunity to reach out to lots of people, interact with wonderful children. Overall it was an enriching experience interacting and learning from people on how to educate children better.
Dr Rabiaa'h Bhatia from eD Webstudio Channel, CED Foundation, said that there was no such concept of learning from other edu-leaders, but pandemic made it possible to connect with them through social media. It let to quickly get adapted to the digital learning method.
Ms Anubha Srivastava, Principal of Delhi International School Edge, Dwarka, Delhi said “pandemic impact has been phenomenal, and it is really tough to say when social gaps can be bridged up. However, at schools, we should come out of the conventional lecture teaching method and focus on activities that encourage interactions between children.”
Ms Asha, the Center Head, Gurgaon, talked about how the COVID pandemic affected both ways. She said, “initially the impact was not that positive but now learning is going in a positive direction.”
Ms Arpita Ghosh - Life Coach & Counsellor, Christ (Deemed to be) University, Lavasa-Pune, expressed how pandemic has pushed us to the tech zone. She shared her experience on what challenges came as conducting extracurricular activities online; the interesting ways teachers came up with tech solutions for those concerns.
Ms Preeti Pasricha, Academic Coordinator, C P Goenka International School, expressed her thoughts on the present situation and said that the dire need of the hour is to stay safe at home. That is why teachers are consistently working over to adapt and make learning fun, effective and imperative to virtual classes.
Ms Sakshi Yadav, Consultant - Directorate of Education, Delhi, shared her experience of the initial phase of lockdown when there was a halt in between all the activities and co-curricular activities. Teachers were figuring out ways to reach the students and plan physical activities through virtual mode. She shared how things were settled and sorted at that moment.
Principal of D.A.V.Public School, Ms Sanjana Bakshi, said pandemic had a psychological impact on kids. According to her, many of them became silent and were not able to express themselves. Isolation from the outside world majorly affected the mental health of kids.
CEO, Founder & Director of Right2Rise(R) Dr Raina Khatri Tandon, too shared her views on the health and psychological impact of pandemic. She said that interactions in person are irreplaceable by technology or online learning. She suggested taking some time off and speaking with people.
With several schools now reopening and resuming the physical classes, some parents are fearing to send their children to school. However, many parents have agreed on letting their children attend offline classes. In K12 Talks, Season-2, the guest speakers also discussed the current situation.
Sharing her opinion Ms Taruna Kapoor, Principal of Ramagya School, Dadri, said that an online classroom can never take place of a traditional classroom. Now, as the schools are gradually reopening, children are enjoying it. She also saluted the teachers for all their struggle and hard work to deal with the sudden challenges.
Dr Bhavna Chibber, Principal of Labarnum Public School said, “whole virtual School idea is not possible at least for now. Learning is way forward, and the need for interpersonal skills cannot be diluted. It is very much important, but can happen only when the kids are in school.”
According to Mr Pranay P. Oswal, Founder & Managing Director | Qube®, school is a system, and till the time we won’t send the kids back to school things, are not going to be the way it is supposed to be. We need to put them in a happy environment that is possible at school.
In an episode, Ms Richa Sharma, Principal - Raghav Global School Noida, Uttar Pradesh joined the show. She also regarded the pandemic time as a great learning experience for all the students and teachers. According to her, the situation successfully brings disruptive technology into education.
Director of Sacred Step Experiential Learning School, Gurgaon-Haryana, Ms Sheba Thapar said, it's a Wi-Fi generation, and the covid-19 pandemic has transformed the world of education.
Mr Neeraj Mohan Puri, Principal- Satyug Darshan Vidyalaya Faridabad, Haryana, “education was the worst-hit sector in corona situation. There was no lockdown on teaching. Pandemic situation made teaching-learning a 24x7 process.”
K12 Talks platform was also shared by Mr Brendon Masciel, Empowerment Coach-Believe It's Within. During the program, Mr Brendon said, "with virtual classes, physical connections and interactions are not happening." He suggested that being educators, we need to ensure interacting and have a one on one conversation with students as well as their parents. To understand what is happening in their academics and even in life.
Overall, another season of K12 Talks convened with a positive note that no matter what the situation is, educators will fight all the odds as warriors to keep the teaching and learning uninterrupted.
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