A Study on Whether the Education Imparted During the Pandemic, Has a Better or Worse Impact on High School Students

Abstract

The Covid – 19 pandemic has affected various aspects of life in the diverse ways, including the education system and the students. Furthermore, a general hypothesis was formed about the online study of the high schoolers, that they had less cognitive skills than others who did offline schooling. In order to ascertain, whether or not the hypothesis is true, the following study was undertaken. It was designed to examine the impact of the pandemic on the four cognitive abilities — concentration, problem-solving, planning, and memory. As part of the study the high school and under graduate students in their final year, were subjected to four different tasks. The task scores were then tabulated and analyzed. The results indicated that, the memorizing and concentration skills were far better for the children, who had graduated from high school before the pandemic, in comparison to the better capability in planning and problem-solving aptitude of the high schoolers studying online. While the analysis provided limited evidence to the fact that, the students studying online had learnt lesser or more than the other group of respondents and the online system of study had better or worse impact on them. But definitely it did point out, that the students studying online were ready to face challenges head-on.