Learning Loss During School Closures: Challenges in India

Lakshmi Pandey T. M. Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur-7, Bihar Pages: 47-54   India has the most extensive schooling system in the world, covering 264.5 million students as of U-DISE 2019-20 reports. The COVID 19 pandemic adversely affected the education system leading to closures of schools. This closure left very little time for the system to prepare a strategy and transition to distance/online learning. Different stakeholders of the education system faced difficulties in adopting the new online system. Evidence shows that online education is ineffective, leading to learning loss and jolting students’ routine lives. The term ‘learning loss’ is a global phenomenon that means the loss of previously acquired academic knowledge or skills or a pause in academic advancement, most commonly due to extended time away from school or in-person instruction. The present conceptual paper was an attempt to capture the learning loss during school closure and challenges in India. The Government of India has promoted online teaching through various modes and launched many online teaching tools like DIKHSA, SWAYAM, NROER and e-PATHSHALA etc. Studies found that despite access to television and the internet, many students, especially in rural areas, are reluctant to watch educational programmes on TV and online. Students from low-income rural families and those studying in public educational institutions have relatively high learning loss. Such students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds and without access to technological resources, find it very difficult to catch up on the level of learning in pre-pandemic times. Thus, the situation is likely to widen learning gaps more than ever and create psychological distress among students. Nowdays, cyber loafing and internet addiction are more common among school students. Therefore, strategic planning and teacher support should be suggested as learning recovery plan to bridge the gap of learning loss.. Keywords: School closures, learning loss, digital resources and India