Impact of Online Teaching on Students’ Education and Health in India during the Pandemic of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: India is facing a pandemic of ‘Coronavirus disease -2019’ (COVID-19). In the absence of proper medicine and vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19, the Government of India has imposed the country lockdown from 25 March 2020 to avoid chain/community transmission of coronavirus in humans. Consequently, the educational institutes were also closed during the lockdown period and traditional classroom teaching switched to online teaching in India to compensate for the educational losses. Aims: This article aims to measure the impact of online teaching on education as well as the health of the students. Methodology: The online survey was conducted on the students to measure the impact of online teaching on their education and health. There are 792 valid responses obtained from the survey. Result: According to the survey, online teaching was equally important in all segments of education during the period of a pandemic, but about 30 % of students are not satisfied with the delivery of content through online teaching. The students below 14 years were getting addicted to mobiles and laptops and consequently, they suffered from mental sickness and eye problems due to the screen effect. Conclusion: Online teaching has played a vital role during the pandemic, but its consequences can not be ignored. The online classes can not be accessed by each student due to the unavailability of smartphones, laptops and mobiles network to especially poor families and remote areas. This creates discrimination among the students of poor and rich or urban and rural. The students below 14 years are not aware of the screen effect and get addicted to mobile that causes mental and eye problems. Thus, online teaching can not take the position of traditional classroom teaching for a long time and we will need to get back to traditional teaching after a pandemic ends.