Education in the Post-Pandemic World

With the dawn of each year, comes a whole set of new challenges and the year 2020 struck a

balance between being the same and yet, very different at the same time. As the world awaits a

vaccine, the humdrum of the corporate world has come to a proverbial stop, moving ahead on

phones and laptops and the education sector is no different. As the physical doors of institutions

are being shut, virtual doors are opening across devices. It has been months since the doors of

these institutions have remained closed for their students.

In a matter of weeks, the way the education was being delivered changed. The role of

smartphones, laptops and internet has changed completely. From being seen as a distraction in a

student’s life, laptops, headphones and good internet connectivity have become the basic

prerequisites for attending lectures. Breakout rooms have taken the place of class discussions and

being able to attend classes from the comfort of your room has become the norm. These changes

brought to the way education is imparted begs the question - How will the education be in the

post-pandemic world? What changes are we going to adopt from the online learning and mix it

up with our traditional methods?

Though technology-enabled learning has been envisioned as the future for quite some time now,

however, there is still a lot to be done before it can be accepted as the “new normal”. According

to a recent survey conducted among the students of Delhi University showed that around 42% of

the students were unable to attend online lectures, with a majority of stating poor internet

connectivity as the reason behind it. If we are to support tech-enabled learning, universities will

have to undergo a complete digital transformation to be able to accommodate students and

faculties in this new setup. The universities need to come up with a way which allows equal

access to education along all financial statures. Also, with the fear of losing out on peer to peer

learning increasing among the students, it becomes immensely necessary that stakeholders of

education institutions come forward to address it and chart out a structured plan which can help

minimise the loss because of online classes, if not eradicate it completely.

While the world is trying to return to normal, this is not the old normal. As the Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described, this will be the "new normal." There are new rules that are to

be followed. We will have to adapt to the post-pandemic world, which is definitely not a better

one. Everything will have to change.