Effective Principals 2020 | Mr. Aloysius D’Mello, Principal of Greenwood High International School
How lockdown reveals the actual state of E-education in India?
India is a country where knowledge has been predominantly disseminated in the traditional methods of rhetoric using chalks and boards and has been followed ever since our Gurukula days. However, even with the advent of modern Digital mediums, our Educators hadn’t embraced new technology with both hands.
There is still a huge valley between Implementation of Digital learning and the current Classroom learning. We were yet to see a Watershed moment towards migration of using such Platforms until this episode of Covid19 and Lockdowns followed. It has been a real Eye opener and perhaps a Game changer of sorts.
After a decade of lying dormant, everyone had finally joined the Bandwagon and embraced the E-learning space with Gusto. Suddenly, online education via Webinars have become the staple for almost all as the domains, be it education in schools/colleges or Professional skill development.
Ever since the lockdown was declared; learning came to an absolute standstill. The students were locked up at home while the parents were worried with regards to their learning. Many parents were very concerned while the children missed seeing their favorite teachers, friends, fun activities and classroom learning.
The sudden trouble across the globe had gotten everyone to adapt technologies to both, learn and to work from home. It is the hibernating Education sector that was jolted to face an uphill task in quickly adapting to the Digital Space for the continuation of Student learning and engagement.
Thus, Covid19 came as that straw that broke the Camel’s back exposing our ill-equipped Education system. Yet, we rose to the challenge with our Coordinators and Teachers brainstormed on transforming all pedagogy into the Digital medium with live sessions to reach out to our students.
With intensive meetings, our Curriculum Team curated a timetable for children limiting their screen time in mind while giving them Offline assignments. Thus, their learning resumed slowly but surely, while we managed to keep them engaged at home staying safe. The teachers were super proactive in learning new technicalities and taught the curriculums remotely. Even coaching for preparation of various University Entrance Tests were conducted via shared platforms.
Covid-19 has had a huge impact on various aspects of our lives and we kept creating awareness on mental well-being, self-improvement, self-investment. We even decided to bring out the hidden talents of Students with few Contests and shared their pictures/videos to encourage them.
Now that this is the new norm, adaptation to this new age mode of learning is of utmost importance for every school/college across the country. This pandemic has exposed the chinks in our armor. It is time for Indian education to not just treat Digital space as a Show pony anymore but to accept it as a staple part of their medium of instruction.
We, at Greenwood High, take pride that we managed to take the bull by its horns and rise to the challenge to ensure that learning never stops for our students.
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