Education Coronafied: How the pandemic is changing student lives

Just like every other demographic, the student community has been affected in several ways due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even though young people are least vulnerable to the virus, the fallout from the pandemic including recession, school closures have brought permanent changes to certain aspects of everyday student life. Some of these aspects include

1. Paradigm shift in Teaching - Lockdowns have forced schools and universities to look for alternatives to supplement physical teaching leading them to conduct classes over Zoom and Google Meet. Moving online has definitely made life easier as learning and teaching can be done from the comfort of home. However, logistical difficulties like slow and faulty internet connection have made it difficult for students and teachers to effectively take part in the process as they might in-person. Nevertheless even with its disadvantages, online teaching might soon become the norm.
2. Exam Delays - Due to social distancing norms and guidelines, it has been difficult for exam boards to conduct exams causing severe delays. These delays have been especially hard for graduating students who might be joining college or a new job and whose prospects depend on these exams . While some universities have resorted to conducting online exams as Open-Text Book Assessments(OTBA), most of these attempts have been unsuccessful mostly due to the lack of necessary infrastructure and students resorting to unfair practices. For eg: Delhi University recent mock assessments for its final-year students was rife with technical difficulties for the students. During the examination, students faced issues like website crashing or an incorrect paper being uploaded. Such incidents expose the faultlines of an online examination system and might mean that we would have to wait till the end of lockdowns in order to conduct examinations.
3. Mental Health - While coronavirus pandemic might be a physical health crisis its effects on mental health cannot be ignored especially on students. Uncertainty of their future added with the anxiety that a vulnerable loved one might catch the virus, coronavirus has taken a toll on the mental health of several students leading to an increase in cases of depression and suicide. Thankfully, several educational institutions have recognized the need of counselling during these difficult times and are offering free counselling services. It is important during these trying times that students must freely express themselves to family and friends about any issues that they might have and seek help.
4. Internships and Job Opportunities - The effect of pandemic surprisingly has been nonuniform across several industries. While service sectors like technology, etc. have been able to offset the effects of lockdowns by moving to Work-from Home, manufacturing industries like Automobiles,etc. have had to totally shut down causing massive layoffs. Furthermore, the economic downturn due to the pandemic has further led to major companies rescinding their full-time and internship offers, throwing careers of several students in jeopardy. However, every dark cloud has a silver lining - coronavirus pandemic has given a significant boost to the areas of medicinal cure and biomedical research to find a vaccine. Candidates in these fields will definitely benefit from the effects of this pandemic career-wise. Furthermore , tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon,etc have taken the lead and promised to honour their offers giving students much needed comfort.
5. Family Lives - On a regular day, students find little time to spend with their families mainly due to their hectic student life . With the lockdown forcing several families to spend time together for a large period of time, teenagers have been increasing engagement with their family, discussing personal issues and opening up more than ever. This could be counted amongst the few positive benefits that the pandemic has offered.

These times sure seem to be difficult and bleak. However as Sundar Pichai mentioned in his convocation speech, we shall finally prevail . It is important to remember that there have been more difficult times in the history of humanity and we have overcome all of them and just like those this too shall pass. Students should keep working hard with resilience and grit with the idea that good days lie ahead of us.