Why Online Teaching Works?

For ages we have been seeing that blackboard making notes from it, mugging it up for exams. Then the online revolution happened. Students started attending class online, making notes while sitting in front of the computer. Then there were hundreds of options to study online. The internet and technology enabled us to reach classes with just a click. It is one of the fastest-growing sectors today.

But first, what is online teaching?

Online classes are classes that are conducted where we connect both students and teachers via the internet. Schools use various tools for such classes as google meet, zoom call, WhatsApp also seems to emerge for online classes.

There is no need for a classroom, buildings, all you need is a student and a teacher. A student can choose to learn in their own comfort and time.

Indian School Finance Company has released insights into its ‘e-School Readiness Survey’ conducted with US-based education sector focused impact investor Gray Matters Capital. + More than 72% of the respondents have shown their willingness to explore digital solutions for school continuity. + Over 37% of respondents have already started some sort of remote schooling by sharing educational content via messaging solutions such as WhatsApp. Source — Education World

Now let’s see: How does it work?

In a usual scenario to set up a class, a school would need a student, teacher, classrooms, board, table bench, etc. But here all you need is a phone and internet access. A teacher can build the syllabus instantly as per class and student. Also, regularly conduct the test, interact with parents, share marks and assignments with them.

We usually hear questions like, it is so much different from the usual school, why are schools opting for it? Who wants to study online? And why online is a great substitute for physical school?

Let’s deep dive:

Flexibility

For teachers, the major benefit would set up classes at their convenience. Maybe teachers are occupied in the morning but can carve out time in the afternoon for the class. So, we can fit classes into everyone’s schedule.

Infrastructure

Many schools cannot overlook the cost of setting up a physical classroom. In an online class, a school can have access to excellent resources without having to move, thereby saving money by avoiding the building infrastructure plus saving time for the teacher, students and management.

Access to high-quality teachers and classes

Let us say if APJ Abdul Kalam were to teach physics, wouldn’t you be excited!

One of the biggest issues at school faces is getting the right and passionate teachers. Teachers from anywhere around the globe can teach the students without having to travel anywhere, right from where they are, this saves money, more than that, it opens up for school to hire teachers around the world.

Choosing your pace

Each of us learns at a different pace, some are slow, some are fast. With the online classes, teachers can also find who is slow to the race. This also means there are less pressure and less intensity to finish something off at that time.

Comfortable Environment

Online classes let the teacher set their own environment to their own preference. It also becomes easier to stay focused on the subject and the topic. When interactions are online and everyone is listening to the same topic, there are fewer chances of getting deviated.

There is nothing wrong with the traditional schooling system, but when it comes to affordable school, there are some challenges as these are meant for low-income families. For these affordable schools, online classes can open so many closed doors and windows. With this, these kids can have a “normal” good quality education, which everyone deserves no matter where they are and where they come from.

Online Classes are Here To Stay

This last year put us through the mental, physical and emotional test. We had to set a pause button on the fast, ever-moving life of ours. Students were among the worst affected, and to ensure they were still learning during the pandemic, many schools quickly moved online. The struggle was harder for many NGOs or Affordable schools who lacked the required resources for moving online and hence hoped that the physical classes would open up soon.

Now that the schools are slowly being allowed to open up, the question for most schools and Ed-tech organizations is: Will Online classrooms survive post covid?

The short answer is Yes. Let me explain.

Of the 15 lakh schools in India, about 2.5 lakh are Affordable Private Schools. There are also many NGO schools operating in the country.

Over the years, we have seen enormous growth in Affordable Private School. These schools are perceived by the parents as being of a better standard than government schools and only slightly lower than elite private schools. Because these schools are “affordable”, they are faced with certain challenges.

• Because of their reasonable fees structure, schools constantly are under financial pressure

• Often, they’re unable to find high-quality teachers because of the location they operate in or because of their salary paying capacity

• And many are sceptical about adapting to the new technology because either it’s too costly for their size or because of the added learning burden it’ll bring.

This only means that the widespread solutions present in the market could not solve their problems, not that technology can’t solve them.

In order to ensure high-quality teachers, despite their location and financial capacity, online education would still remain the best bet for them. Also, technology is the only way to track student performance, school data, over the long term and ensure that gaps are better visible so that corrective actions can be taken accordingly. And Ed-tech solutions that help them manage their curriculum and student performance only need to be simpler and cheaper enough so that it removes the inhibitions that the teachers using them might have.

Challenges faced by Affordable Private School.

This calls for a workable, comprehensive and easy-to-use solution for not only managing school and student performance but also conducting online classes. allLearn is one such school management platform that is built specifically with NGO and Affordable private schools in mind. Some things that make it stand out are:

• The platform is available on WhatsApp.

• Works with any curriculum.

• It’s available in vernacular languages, starting with Hindi.

The new WhatsApp feature from allLearn is very simple, powerful, and allows teachers to do their desired task quickly. They can create instant live class, online tests and assignments, track students’ performance and share with parents. allLearn’s WhatsApp service can also be used by parents to check their child’s performance, pay fee, and students can use it to see their data and start practice tests quickly.

With such tools at their disposal, schools could not provide a better service to the students and parents but also make use of online sessions to connect with high-quality teachers no matter where they are, eventually leading to better-educated students.

Sounds interesting? Then, you should find more about allLearn

Challenges with K-12 education in rural India

Despite the improvements in literacy rates across the country, the access to quality education remains a challenge for several sections of the country. I’m primarily talking about the population in rural India right now. While you’d find government schools building in most corners of the country, many among them are either low functioning or defunct altogether. That’s primarily because of two factors: 1. Lack of monitoring of school’s progress and 2. The local population’s disenchantment of these formal education when they’d don’t see any value.  With new technologies that are already available, it’s not difficult to track how the school has been doing over time and pull up the responsible people when needed, it’s the second reason that needs more attention and effort.  Hope is a prerequisite for education. You can’t teach a person who doesn’t believe those teachings would improve his/her life. And it’s needed not only in children but also their parents. Parents need to have hope that their children will be able to get good jobs and a good life if they are educated and the children need to believe that whatever they learn they will be able to use at some point in their lives to make it better.  I was volunteering at a rural place called Rajakhet in Uttarakhand some time back and I was curious about people’s perspectives about quality education. A general response I got from the local educators was that the parents are not too interested in their kids' education because they feel that even after all their high grades all they’d amount to is working for five thousand rupees in a blue collared job. It’s not the type of job but the pay here that should be emphasized. They said that if that’s the best case scenario then why not let them do the things they can without a formal education. In some ways they were right, there’s a huge disconnect between the jobs available in the market and the people who need one. Also if there’s a high supply of workers, the salary for that role automatically decreases. I remember having taken up my first job at three lac rupees in an IT services company like many others in my peer group. And I also remember that this starting amount was exactly the same that my cousin had received when he’d started in a similar company 7 years before me. In fact, due to a high supply of engineers, the starting salary had been reduced to two lac rupees in some big MNCs and a new lower role was created to justify it.  In Rajakhet, there was also an upcoming trend of going to places in the Middle East as blue collared workers and since it paid much higher than what they’d make in India with the same skill set, it made obvious sense to go for them. While they are great opportunities for the local population, options like these only contribute in eroding any interest in high quality education all the more.  It tends to become a cyclical issue in some ways where low quality education produces a workforce with lower skills who then either take up blue collar jobs, get disheartened by where their formal education has landed them and finally lose interest in ensuring good education for the next generation altogether. One regular fix is to go to a metro city so that their kids are able to get a good education.  There are several ways in which we can improve this situation though. First among them is by strengthening the education system by ensuring qualified teachers are recruited and then monitoring the school’s progress on a regular basis. Second, often, the schools themselves are suffering with a lack of resources and despite all the right intentions they aren’t able to improve too much. We need to step up and help every school that is in that position. After all it’s the future of our country that depends on it. Third, running campaigns to inform parents the benefits of education and imploring them not only to send their children to school but also in taking interest in their education. Fourth, connecting curriculum with jobs in the market. This is more for the higher ages and should be done to reduce dropout rates. And fifth, creating a proper connection between the job market and education system so that students know that if they qualify the school getting a decent job wouldn’t be too difficult. Even if these aren’t very high paying jobs they should at least pay enough to make basic formal education worth it.