Online education widens the social divide and exacerbates the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
Not all homes are conducive to learning, and some students lack necessary facilities at home.
Online education lacks the socializing component that comes with on-campus education.
Education is not only about data collection, but also about subjective experiences, cultural differences, and emotional growth.
Online education offers no space for critical thinking and reduces education to a mere utilitarian and technical exercise.
The teacher becomes irrelevant in the new scheme of things, and the profession of teaching as we know it today can be endangered.
Online education can be a substitute for on-campus learning in unavoidable circumstances, but should never replace it completely.
The global Covid pandemic has drastically changed our lives and all of us are now conducting our everyday activities in completely unfamiliar modes. Physical distancing has become a key element in the new protocol. The biggest impact has been in those activities—public or private—which involve a gathering of people. One of the sectors that was tremendously affected is education, with schools and colleges remaining closed indefinitely. Some countries have resorted to online education as a way out. . While online education is generally regarded as the only solution available at the moment, it comes with its own specific challenges and pitfalls. Here are some reasons why online education is not that desirable a solution as we are persuaded to believe. It widens the social divide Shifting education to the digital platform gives an obvious and undue advantage to the rich and privileged class of society. They have better gadgets, stronger connectivity and greater familiarity with the technology. If education is supposed to be a social leveller, the weaker sections in this case are pushed several yards behind even before the race has begun.
Digital divide or technological inequality is a reality, especially between the urban and rural areas.
Home isn’t necessarily the same for everyone All households are not alike. We assume that the home is a happy place for all children and that it is easier for them to learn sitting at home. Perhaps it is true for most families. But there are also quite a number of unhappy homes which are simply not conducive for regular learning. There are many young people with no facility whatsoever at their homes and in some cases. Exposing one’s background is not necessarily a welcome proposition for all
. Young minds are quite sensitive to peer assessment. And many of them consider the time spent on the campus as a relief from the unpleasant realities of their personal lives. Online education does not factor these. It lacks the socialising component The teaching-learning exercise that takes place in the classroom is only one part of the totality of education. Much of the rest is provided by the social life on the campus. The personal interactions, collaborative engagements, shared experiences, conversations and meals all contribute towards the education of a student.
What is the purpose of going to school /college? It’s not merely for accumulating knowledge, but for preparing the young person to live in a society. The campus is where the young boy or girl comes across and befriends individuals with various social and ideological backgrounds. It is where the young student experiences cultural difference.
Online education, on the other hand, pushes him/her to islands of individuality and privacy. There is already the argument that this generation of youngsters has less of real social interaction. By denying them the experiences of a campus life as well, we are making it far worse for them.
Education is not mere data collection A related argument is that this exercise reduces education to mere data collection. Online education assigns a higher value to quantifiable and downloadable content. Abstract notions, aesthetic values, sentiments and subjective responses of an experiential kind are sidelined. It does not encourage multiplicity of perspectives, subtleties, deliberations or arguments. This is dangerous and reduces education to a mere utilitarian and technical engagement.
One is reminded of Charles Dickens’ famous novel Hard Times which opens with the words of Thomas Gradgrind, a School Superintendent: “Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts.” This is a wrong understanding of the purpose of education. It was Albert Einstein who gave what is perhaps the finest definition of education, when he said that it “is what remains in you after you have forgotten all that you have learnt in the classroom."
Online education gives no scope for any sentiments or memories to cherish. It’s a mechanical and repetitive exercise that kills the creative and emotional instincts of the young learner. It seriously affects the nature of teaching and learning.
Online education cannot replicate either the quantity or quality of classroom teaching/learning.
There is no time for elaboration here. Data is precious, especially for the students, and has to be used diligently. The first casualty will be the interactive element. In most schools and colleges, the teacher lectures on Zoom, Google Meet, or some such platform and the students listen in passively after switching off their cameras and microphones. It is often a technical ritual, without much communication between the teacher and the learner. A text or topic that usually takes several sessions of discussion in a classroom will be dealt with in the online mode using the minimum time. And the whole orientation of teaching and learning is likely to be around the examinations and their grading mechanism. It makes teachers irrelevant As a consequence of the last two reasons, the teacher becomes irrelevant in the new scheme of things. A technological takeover is happening in education. We have several knowledge portals, online resources, Apps as well as courses and content offered by well-known institutions. In the information age, the teacher is no longer the only source of knowledge, and rightly so. But the experience and human interaction that a teacher offers is invaluable. But if online education becomes the mainstay, the very profession of teaching as we know it today can be endangered.
One immediate fallout of online education is that it allows no space for critical thinking.
Online education is fine as long as it remains a supplementary tool for the classroom engagement on a vibrant campus. In unavoidable circumstances, it can even be a substitute. Online education should never be allowed to replace the real learning..
