Impact Of Pandemic And Online Classes On Student’s Life

Our poor and pauperized terra firma has endured many pandemics since Homo sapiens have habituated it. When pandemics occur, life just becomes stagnant. Now, this statement has become a myth with the advancement of knowledge and technology. Recently, the world is facing an outbreak of Covid-19 that has revealed the reality of how “developed” we are. Almost every part of the world is under lockdown. So, to meet the educational and everyday needs, many governments have introduced online systems for every work. However, the impact of the pandemic and online classes on students’ life is something really unhinging.

Every country has introduced an online learning system for students to avoid any educational loss in this COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s getting worse day by day in some other countries as well as in Pakistan. Here we go by discussing the impact of the pandemic and online classes on students’ life. Although this pandemic has left no field uninfluenced till now, the most influenced category is that of students. First of all, know the different levels of educational institutes being affected by this pandemic.

• Early childhood education
• Primary Education
• Secondary Education
• Tertiary Education/Higher Education
• Undergraduate / postgraduate programs

Impact of the pandemic on students

A few months back, The Harvard Gazette published a statement saying that COVID-19 school closures have turned a spotlight on inequities and other shortcomings. The 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic has stirred educational systems up worldwide, thus edging them to the closure of almost all schools, colleges, and universities.

According to UNESCO ( The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ) monitoring, nearly 191 countries are implementing the nation wise closure or lockdown. And five countries have implemented local closure, hence impacting and affecting about 98.4% of the world’s student community.

Impact of online classes on students

Why is this closure so important that we are compromising even on our falling economy?

Here is the antiphon!

We have no exigent scoop of this virus. So, we haven’t developed any vaccine yet. Although trials are going on, the possible way to eschew its contraction is to keep a minimum distance of 3 feet or 1 meter, according to WHO.

It is because this virus is transmitted by air (sneezing, coughing, flu, or touch) through the victim. In Pakistan, HEC (Higher Education Commission), knowing the need for the precautionary measures against this lethal and mortiferous enemy, has decided to close all the educational bodies.

 And to avoid any loss in this sector, the commission ordered the educational bodies to start the online classes using any available and accessible platform. Most commonly, the application named ZOOM is being used. But the students don’t seem to be satisfying by this act. And the universities are also in strife.

So the impact of the pandemic and online classes ultimately hit the students’ community negatively. It is because of the many valid reasons listed and explained below.

• Poverty
• Internet Unavailability
• Connectivity Problems
• Quality Issues
• Personal Issues
• Work Pressure
• Phone Addiction
• Waste of Time
• Dilemma regarding Exams
• Bigotry
• Freedom of Cheating
• Depression and Anxiety

POVERTY:

Pakistan is a country with varying degrees of poverty in different provinces. The poverty rate is variable in rural as well as urban communities. According to data collected a few years back, almost 17.2% of the population in Pakistan lives below the poverty line. Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan reported that the intensity of poverty for Pakistan was about 50.0% in 2014-15.

The bottom 10 districts in Punjab ranked by MPI include Rajanpur, D.G Khan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Jhangg, Bakker, Lodhran, and Vehari.

So, it is the major drawback of online classes, because not all students are financially well developed and stable.  They cannot afford these heavy data packages either on a daily or monthly basis. Even some families are hardly able to send their offspring to educational bodies either at the school level or university level.

 Moreover, some students at the university level do some sort of part-time job to fulfill and meet their academic needs or support their families. It is probably because of the reason they are the only ones to do this in their families. Due to the pandemic, everything is under lockdown. So, many people and students have lost their part-time or full-time jobs, which are a significant cause of depression for our youth.

Internet Unavailability:

The Internet is unavailable in many areas of Pakistan. The twin albatross is that many students cannot afford or incur these services or devices. Many students do not have a mobile or PC that has become the need of the hour in this situation. In a local survey conducted by my team, many students said that they have no access to the Internet in their areas.

Thus they have to find someplace where they can sit and take online classes in this changing weather.  Not only the novices but also the teachers are suffering from this hitch and holy mess.

Connectivity Problems:

In case, they are blessed enough to own a PC/mobile and buy data packages or devices, the other significant and hefty crunch is the connectivity and signal problems. These problems may be due to the location of the service provider as well as your residence. The wireless router may be fettered for low signal quality.

Other wireless devices may also cause frequency hindrance and interference. Therefore, it is a common observation that the professor’s voice reaches us late and is interrupted sometimes.

Quality Issues:

Since there are a lot of connectivity and signal issues; thus, the quality of education is being compromised. The students who are unable to attend online classes are at a loss in this case. It is a kind of inequity among students because of these so-called educational policies of HEC and faculties.

Personal issues:

The online classes have disclosed our personal life as well. Especially our teachers’ community is being affected by it. This online system is disturbing their own life and is contributing to spouse issues. Moreover, students can hear their children and partners’ gossips in the background. Our society has many drawbacks of marriages.

So, this system has just put everything in danger, like there is no privacy while delivering lectures online. And all this mess created online is seriously disturbing for teachers as well as students. I have seen many students making fun of their mentors in Whatsapp groups and private chats just because of these online classes.

Many students know that some of their mentors have no respect in their own homes, because of their family illiteracy and background or something else. Thus the students have lost respect for their teachers, which is leading our society towards moral demoralization and dithery.

Work Pressure:

The impact of the pandemic and online classes on students’ life can easily be seen in the form of work pressure and workload imposed on them during online-classes. Sometimes, they are asked to submit their work right after online-classes or before evening, which is causing anxiety in them. Since they cannot send their work on time because of the connectivity problems or less data speed, they are bullied by their teachers.

Phone Addiction:

These students spend almost more than 18 hours on their phones for several purposes, sometimes for online classes, for assignment purposes, either to refresh themselves by using social media or to bunk the online-classes.

Yes! I said to bunk online-classes.

This excessive and plethoric use of the internet and mobile is causing addiction to the students. Instead of studying, they shell out many hours aimlessly to surf the internet for the ulterior motives of entertainment only. Moreover, it is causing severe health issues, especially those related to eyesight.

Freedom of cheating and bigotry:

In universities, many students face bigotry; the same is the case with online classes. In these online classes and online mock-test system, there is a freedom of cheating for every student as they are allowed to attempt the test in the given period, and there is no one to invigilate and keep an eye on them.

It’s many students’ genetics to cheat in the exams when no one is invigilating them. Is it right?

Depression and anxiety:

As many students are unable to afford data packages and attend online classes, they are worried about their studies and future as well. The most affected community is that of final year students since they need degree verification to apply for jobs. Many of them had applied for jobs in their respective fields, but the pandemic quelled their plans.

Dilemma regarding exams:

HEC has not yet made any final decision regarding university exams. Although, according to a notification, all board exams have been canceled. Some universities are promoting their students to the next semester, while others are not making any decision in this regard. It is causing dilemmas in students. They don’t know what to do next.

Thus, pandemic and online classes have severely affected the students’ community. The impact of the pandemic is going to be long until a vaccine is developed. Thus the government should rectify their policies regarding the online classes. Otherwise, the aftermaths will be disturbingly and erroneously awful.

Click here to read about making the most of online studies.