The home environment is not the same for all, multiple surveys and researches show that students don’t feel like studying at home; while the shutdowns due to the pandemic have forced a major portion of the population to stay at home, the school closures due to lockdown have indeed affected learning patterns and has further declined the will to study and learn in students.
The pandemic has highlighted inequality in the world: school closures and social exclusion have hit all students, especially those living in poverty. Besides educational losses, students are encountering mental health crises, because of inaccessibility. Neither schools are able to give their 100 per cent nor students. However,one cannot disregard how remote learning has protected us from a potentially great loss.
The generational gap between teachers and students has been increased with the intervention of technology, where some teachers fail to help students due to technical complexities; students are also not able to grasp what is being delivered.
Effects of the pandemic on learning:
Pandemic has affected us in many ways, thanks to various studies and researches that the exact ratio and value does not go unnoticed. Here we have mentioned some effects of pandemics on student lives that have been recorded by experts.
•Studies record nearly a 20 to 30 per cent decline in learning progress and knowledge retention in students.
•It has also recorded a major decline in reading habits among students, however, those who have a habit of reading, continue to do so. The divide, however, has scored further with the complete withdrawal of non-readers.
•Researchers found in the study that, to make matters worse, few school systems provide support programs for home learners, which may affect students who are suffering because of insufficient resources.
•Researchers have found that in the summer, when regular school education is interrupted, the dropout rate for all students is roughly the same. However, during the pandemic, learning is not balanced because some students are able to fully participate in online learning, while others face obstacles such as not being able to access the Internet, which hinders their progress.
•The researchers compared the typical growth throughout the school year, with forecasts based on the difference between students not attending schools due to some disaster or holidays and students not attending schools due to the pandemic. And the results are not very surprising. The decline is relatively higher in the case of the pandemic due to a constant withdrawal and not any revival. Especially for students who do not have access to the online mode of learning.