COMBATING THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR IN INDIA

Abstract

On 30th January 2020, India reported its first covid-19 positive case in Kerala and it reached to 100 confirmed cases by mid of March of the same year. Sensing its severity, Prime Minister of India called for voluntary Janta Curfew for 14 hours on 22nd March. As the confirmed cases and death tolls started to increase, from 25th March 2020 lockdown started. Since then education sector from nursery to university level are shut down. About 320 millions of learners are affected by the pandemic in India. This paper is focused on higher education sector only. Higher education in India gets a massive shock as enrolment to new academic year has been postponed, all examinations got withheld, curricular work got hampered, students are facing immense stress of upcoming economic crisis and institutes are facing threats of losing their revenues. Under this situation, the researchers purport to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on higher education sector in India and to look into the possible strategies to combat this situation. Descriptive analytical method has been used in this present study. Different e-journals, websites, articles have been used as secondary source of data. The study highlights on the growing interest in e-learning and usage of various ICT tools in imparting knowledge to the learners. It is revealed that there is a sharp increase in enrolment to MOOCS. Although technological advancement is doing its job to run the teaching-learning process in the higher education sector of India but digital divide is inhibiting a large section of learners to get these benefits. Along with this psychological crisis is also present. Therefore, the technological facilities and infrastructure should be improved in every corner of the country for combating COVID-19 and other such adverse conditions in future.