HMR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

ENGLISH CORE(304)
INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

TOPIC:

COVID AND INDIAN SCHOOL

EDUCATION
SUBMITTED By:
Name: Fransisca Stuthi Domnic
Class: XII ‘C’
Roll No: 80
SUBMITTED TO: Ms. Devi Priya
(English Faculty)
SUBMITTED ON: 6 November 2024

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 HMR INTERNATIONAL
SCHOOL
#41/1, 11th Cross, 9th Main, Hennur Maruthi Layout,
HBR 4th Block, Bangalore -560043 Tel No. 6366583331

Affiliated by Central Board of Secondary Education New Delhi (CBSE). Aff

No. 830463

CERTIFICATE
Academic year 2023-24

This is to certify that Master/Kumari

, of has successfully completed the project

in

in accordance with CBSE Board

during the

academic session 2023-24.

Roll No.:

Date of Examination:

Signature of the Teacher:

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Signature of the Principal:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my great privilege that I have got the opportunity to carry out this project
work COVID AND INDIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION under the supervision
of the English Faculty, Ms. Devi Priya, in the Department of English, HMR
International School, affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education,
India. I express my sincere thanks and deepest sense of gratitude to my guide
for her constant support, unparalleled guidance and limitless encouragement.
We are deeply grateful to our esteemed Principal, Ms. Ashwini Anand for
providing us the valuable opportunity to work on this project and fostering an
ideal environment at the school. I also want to thank my parents and peers for
supporting me throughout the completion of this project.

DATE: 6 November 2024 NAME: Fransisca Stuthi Domnic

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 INDEX

SERIAL NO. CONTENT PAGE NO.

1. OBJECTIVES 5-6
2. ACTION PLAN 7-8
3. PRIMARY SOURCE 9
4. INTRODUCTION 10-11
5. DIGITAL 12-13
INFRASTRUCTURE IN
INDIA
6. IMPACT ON 14-16
TEACHERS AND
STUDENTS

7. OBSERVATION 17
8. CONCLUSION 18
9. REFLECTION 19-20
10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 21

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 OBJECTIVES
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented disruptions to the
Indian education system, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of its
impact on the sector. This study aims to explore how COVID-19 has impacted
Indian education, focusing on the challenges and opportunities that have
emerged due to the pandemic.

 To examine the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian education system,

including the closure of educational institutions, the shift to online
learning, and the effects on students, teachers, and educational
administrators.

 To identify the challenges faced by the Indian education system in

responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, including issues related to
infrastructure, technology, and pedagogy.

 To explore the opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic for

the Indian education system, including the potential for digital
transformation, increased access to education, and innovative pedagogical
approaches.

 To provide recommendations for policymakers, educational

administrators, and educators on how to mitigate the negative impacts of
COVID-19 on Indian education and capitalize on the opportunities
presented by the pandemic.

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The overall objective of this study is to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the
Indian education system. In particular, this study will examine:

1. How the Indian education system is facing the impact of COVID-19 and
highlighting the role played by teachers and students through online
education

2. How is the positive impact helpful to students, parents, and school

teachers in the scenario of online education?

3. How to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on students for their

smooth education.

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 ACTION PLAN
No one would have guessed that a virus like COVID-19 would come, and
without differentiating, it would alter the lifestyle of people. Due to COVID-19,
many changes came to our world, and it took some time for everyone to adopt
the new normal. The Covid-19 impact was everywhere, which resulted in the
closure of schools and other educational institutions.

Initially, most governments have decided to temporarily close the schools to

reduce the impact of COVID-19. Later it was reopened for a few grades, which
increased the number of infection rates, and then closed again.

Despite school closures, students are participating in classes through various

educational initiatives such as online classrooms and radio programs. Though it
is a good thing happening on the other side, there are lots of students who didn’t
own the resources to attend the online classes who suffer a lot. Many students
are struggling to obtain the gadgets required for online classes.

Teachers who are all experts in Blackboard, Chalk, books, and classroom
teaching are really new to this digital teaching, but they are adopting the new
methods and handling it like a pro to aid the students in the current position.

But on the negative side, many teachers are looking for an alternative job to
support their families.

While educated parents are assisting their children during the pandemic, it's
important to acknowledge that some illiterate parents feel helpless in supporting
their children's education.

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There are students in India who came to school just because they could get
food. The great midday meal scheme has helped many children who couldn’t
bring their food from home to get their nutrition.

Due to school closures, many students were experiencing food insecurity and
lacked sufficient food for their survival.

There is always a delay or cancellation of exams, which leads to confusion for

many students, and there is no room for curriculum.

Most of the school-going children are involved in child labor to support their
families.

There is a high likelihood that the education of female and transgender children
will be affected, as their parents may consider the financial and opportunity
costs involved.

This pandemic has not only affected the students but also the low-budget
institutions and schools, resulting in a closedown of the same.

There are both positive and negative matters happening around us amid the
COVID-19.

Technology paves the way for education, thus helping the students and teachers
to connect virtually through online classrooms, webinars, digital exams, and so
on.

But the sad truth is that it is not available to many students all over the nation.

Everything is happening for the well-being of the students so that they can stay
safe at home without getting affected by the life-threatening virus.

We are not ready for this, but it came, so we have to go through this together,
but we have to update the infrastructure and should think of ways to undertake

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the situation and provide education to every child amid the pandemic if we face
something precisely like this in the future to aid the forthcoming generation.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Interview of Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank – Educational Minister on

impact of Covid-19 on Indian Education

Covid – 19 and it’s impact on Indian Education System

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The Impact of Covid – 19 on India and the Global Order

INTRODUCTION
The Indian education system is not yet fully developed in both urban and rural
areas. Midday meal is the program organized to attract the students to get
education. Under these circumstances government-imposed nation wise
lockdown on March 25th, 2020 to combat COVID-19, has made severe impact
on the education system. India has the world’s second largest school system,
after China. According to UNESCO, 63 million teachers were affected in 165
countries.

A total of 1.3 billion learners around the world were not able to attend schools
or universities, and approximately 320 million learners are affected in India
alone. It has changed the traditional education system to the educational
technology model in which teaching and assessments are conducted online.
Both the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on the Indian education
system are observed. This paper aims to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on
the Indian education system, focusing on education during online teaching and
assessment of students getting online classes in this pandemic from settings at
home.

Indian government has announced the lockdown and closure of educational

institutions as a logical solution to enforce social distancing within

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communities. The nationwide lockdown has had a tremendous impact on the
education system of the country, especially for students from rural areas.

Since the Indian education system is dominated by classroom study, the present
scenario has made the functioning of the educational institutions go very
difficult.

All educational activities like examinations, school admissions, entrance tests of

various universities and competitive examinations, others, are being held during
this period. As the days are passing by with no immediate solution to stop this
outbreak, the closure of schools and universities is hugely affecting the learning
across the country.

The structure of the Indian education system, including learning methods,

teaching approaches, and assessment techniques, has been significantly
impacted, leading to a transition to online education with a strong emphasis on
virtual learning to achieve goals. But only a handful of schools and universities
could adopt such methods, and the low-income private and government schools
are quite inefficient to adopt the same, thus resulting in a shutdown.

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 DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN INDIA
Before the COVID-19 lockdown in India, no one estimated that the face of the
Indian educational institutions could change so drastically. Schools that never
allowed students to carry an electronic gadget turned into learning centres for
online classes. Both teachers and students are getting familiar to this new
normal, which is definitely more challenging for the teachers to handle with this
situation.

The teachers also face challenges in designing effective lessons and changing of
teaching when shifting to online learning; this can also be resolved through
workshops and training. According to the key indicators of Household Social
Consumption on Education in India report, based on the 2017-18 NSSO, fewer
than 15% of rural Indian households have internet access (as opposed to 42%
urban Indian households).

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 Rural Urban
Sr No State
Operate Computer (%) Access Internet(%) Operate Computer (%) Access Internet(%)
1 Andhra Pradesh 1.5 10.4 11.6 29.5
2 Delhi NA NA 34.7 55.8
3 Karnataka 2 8.3 22.9 33.5
4 Kerala 20.1 46.9 27.5 56.4
5 Tamil Nadu 11.6 14.4 24.7 24.8
Source: 75th round of National Sample survey conducted between July 2017
and June 2018

Availability of electricity is a significant challenge to taking advantage of

education online. In a recent 2017-18 survey, the Ministry of Rural
Development found that only 47% of Indian households receive more than 12
hours of electricity and more than 36% of schools in India operate without
electricity.

This suggests that while students from families with better means of living can
easily bridge the transition to remote learning, students from underprivileged
backgrounds are likely to accede to inefficiency and a lack of adaptation, either
because of the inaccessibility of the technology or the low education of their
parents to guide them through tech-savvy applications.

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Non-availability of technical infrastructure and irregular interrupted internet
connectivity all across India is the biggest challenge in front of the students and
teachers.

IMPACT ON TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Both teachers and students are facing many hurdles during online education. At
home, a lack of basic facilities, external distraction and family interruption
during teaching were major issues noticed. Educational institution support
barriers such as the budget for purchasing advanced technologies, a lack of
training, a lack of technical support and a lack of clarity and direction were also
noticed. Teachers also faced technical difficulties.

The difficulties were grouped under a lack of technical support; it included a

lack of technical infrastructure, limited awareness of online teaching platforms
and security concerns. Teachers’ personal problems including a lack of technical
knowledge, course integration with technology is damper their engagement in
online teaching.

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POSITIVE IMPACT ON EDUCATION SYESTEM

Though the outbreak of COVID-19 has created many negative impacts on

education, educational institutions of India have accepted the challenges and
trying their best to provide seamless support services to the students during the
pandemic. Indian education system got the opportunity for transformation from
traditional system to a new era. The following points may be considered as the
positive impacts.

 Develop the use of soft copy of learning material:

In lockdown situation, students were not able to collect the hard copies of study
materials and hence most of the students used soft copy materials for reference.

 Improvement in collaborative work:

There is a new opportunity where collaborative teaching and learning can take
on new forms.

 Rise in online meetings:

The pandemic has created a massive rise in teleconferencing, virtual meetings,

webinars and e-conferencing opportunities.

 Enhanced digital literacy:

The pandemic situation induced people to learn and use digital technology and
resulted in increasing the digital literacy.

 Improved the use of electronic media for sharing information:

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Learning materials are shared among the students easily and the related queries
are resolved through e-mail, SMS, phone calls and using different social medias
like WhatsApp or Facebook.

 Worldwide exposure:

Educators and learners are getting opportunities to interact with peers from
around the world. Learners adapted to an international community.

 Better time management:

Students are able to manage their time more efficiently in online education
during pandemics.

 Demand for Open and Distance Learning

During the pandemic situation, most of the students preferred Open and
Distance Learning mode as it encourages self-learning providing opportunities
to learn from diverse resources and customized learning as per their needs.

NEGATIVE IMPACT ON EDUCATION SYSTEM:

Indian education system has suffered a lot due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It
has created many negative impacts on education and some of them are as
pointed below:

 Educational activity hampered:

Schools are closed and classes have been suspended. Different boards have
already postponed the annual examinations and entrance tests across India.

 Unpreparedness of teachers and students:

Teachers and students are unprepared for online education; they were not ready
for this sudden transition from face-to-face learning to online learning.

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  Parents’ role:

In urban area some educated parents are able to guide but some may not have
the adequate level of education needed to teach children in the house.

 Digital gadgets:

Especially in rural area many students have limited or no internet access and
many students may not be able to afford computer, laptop or supporting mobile
phones in their homes, online teaching-learning may create a digital divide
among students. The lockdown has hit the poor students very hard in India as
most of them are unable to explore online learning according to various reports.

 Create Difference:

This online teaching-learning method creates a big gap between rich vs poor
and urban vs rural students.

OBSERVATION
This pandemic has revealed some of the major loopholes in the Indian education
system. The closure of schools has made a severe impact on marginalized
students. One of the critical trends that can be followed is the need to have a
combined approach to online learning with increase in investment on the
upgrading of the technology infrastructure of educational institutions. Stress
needs to be given to training the teachers. All higher education institutes now
are aware of the importance of technology and should take serious measures to
conduct technology-driven education through the learning management system.
It is recommended that educational institutions should use technology in all
aspects. This pandemic shows the partnership between technology and
education is going to stay forever. One more suggestion is that education

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Institutes can divide the courses into conventional teaching and online teaching,
it will help in inculcating the technology into the classrooms. Online teaching
will increase digital literacy among teachers and students which will increase
their exposure and learning and making them more employable for the digital
world-leading thereby contributing to social sustainability.

CONCLUSION:
COVID-19 has impacted immensely the education sector of India. Though it
has created many challenges, various opportunities are also evolved. The Indian
Govt. and different stakeholders of education have explored the possibility of
Open and Distance learning by adopting different digital technologies to cope
up with the present crisis of COVID-19. India is not fully equipped to make
education reach all corners of the nation via digital platforms. The students who
aren’t privileged like the others will suffer due to the present choice of digital
platforms. The priority should be to utilize digital technology to create an
advantageous position for millions of young students in India. It is need of the
hour for the educational institutions to strengthen their knowledge and
Information Technology infrastructure to be ready for facing COVID-19 like

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situations. Even if the COVID-19 crisis stretches longer, there is an urgent need
to take efforts on maximum utilization of online platforms. India should develop
creative strategies to ensure that all children must have sustainable access to
learning during pandemic COVID19. As online practice is benefitting the
students immensely, it should be continued after the lockdown. Further detailed
statistical study may be undertaken to explore the impact of COVID-19 on
education system of India.

REFLECTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted education in India,
revealing systemic weaknesses while prompting resilience and innovation.

With over 250 million students affected by school closures in March 2020, the
disruption was immediate and far-reaching.

One of the most critical issues highlighted by the pandemic was the digital
divide. While urban students often adapted to online learning due to better
access to technology, many rural students faced significant barriers. Reports
indicated that nearly 50% of rural students lacked necessary devices or internet
connectivity, exacerbating educational inequalities and hindering their learning
progress.

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The mental health of students also became a pressing concern. Isolation,
disrupted routines, and uncertainty about the future contributed to increased
anxiety and stress levels among students. Studies reported a notable rise in
mental health issues during this period, emphasizing the need for mental health
support within educational frameworks.

Despite these challenges, the pandemic spurred innovation in education.

Educators quickly adapted, utilizing technology in creative ways and exploring
alternative teaching methods. Some organizations implemented educational
programs through radio and television, effectively reaching students without
internet access. These initiatives not only maintained continuity in learning but
also encouraged a revaluation of traditional educational practices.

As schools reopened, the focus shifted to addressing the learning gaps that
emerged during the lockdown. Many students returned with significant deficits
in knowledge and skills, necessitating remedial programs. Schools began
implementing targeted strategies to support these students, highlighting the need
for a tailored approach to education.

The pandemic also prompted policymakers to consider necessary reforms

within the education system. There is now a greater emphasis on integrating
technology into learning and ensuring inclusivity for all students, regardless of
socio-economic background.

In conclusion, the impact of COVID-19 on Indian education has been both

challenging and transformative. While it exposed deep-rooted inequalities and
mental health issues, it also fostered innovation and highlighted the need for a
more resilient and inclusive educational framework.

Embracing these lessons will be vital for shaping a brighter future for education
in India.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
2. . https://www-indiatodayin.cdn.ampproject.org/v
/s/www.indiatoday.in/amp/education-today/featurephilia/story/covid
-19
3. https://www-indiatodayin.cdn.ampproject.org/v
/s/www.indiatoday.in/amp/education-today/featurephilia/story/covid
-19
4. .
http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Informati
on-CommunicationsTechnology-ICT-in-Schools/Digital-Strategy-

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 for-Schools/ Building-Towards-a-Learning-Society-ANational-
Digital-Strategy-for-Schools- Consultative-Paper.pd
5. Covid – 19 and its impact on Indian Education System
6. The Impact of Covid – 19 on India and the Global Order

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