Online education has taken a toll on parents and students during the pandemic. And this medium has been the ‘MOST INCONVENIENT’ one for most of them. There is a long list of issues faced by Indian parents during pandemic schooling, especially when they put their trust in the newly showcased online schools in India. But most parents have their own versions with some things in common.
Let’s take up 10 reasons why one cannot rely on the new system of online schools in India:
1. Credibility aspects & Recognition
The biggest challenge with 100% online learning is its acceptance issue. With the mainstream Indian CBSE recognitions and other similar boards, online schooling can be a questionable pick.
This means that if you join a regular school after completing some classes from an online school, regular schools might reject your application straight away.
2. Lack of knowledge about accreditation
It’s not that online schools are totally unrecognized or illegitimate. Instead, they bear recognition that has a different terminology like ‘accreditation’. This term is not very popular in the Indian setting. And many stakeholders do not know how to distinguish between a scam and a genuine accreditation.
Broadly, the terms used in other education systems like the US are not very common in the Indian system. And it makes it difficult for Indian parents to map these institutions with the aspects of accreditation that in turn have complex elements like bona fide accrediting agencies, etc.
3. Online teachers with the right skill set
Many online schools in India are also not equipped with perfect online teachers that can make online schooling worth it for students. One major issue is that many online schools carry out online education with regular school teachers. And they just fit into virtual teaching with just their basic knowledge of delivering virtual instructions.
These teachers themselves struggle with online teaching pedagogies. Because they themselves lack the mastery for teaching virtually.
4. Issues of association with physical schools
To deliver a perfect schooling experience to Indian students, online schools need to be in sync with regular schools. They need to understand the ‘INDIAN STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVE’ to deliver education that matches the needs of the Indian target group. Just like any other collaborative effort, this union needs two-way cooperation. Because traditional schools are already aware of the Indian student’s mindsets and their understanding levels.
All in all, online schools need to work on the lines of the Indian educational goals that are best known to the schools that are serving them for long. Most of the time, this association doesn’t materialize the way it should.
5. Digital literacy
We know that digital literacy is a passport to unveil the offerings magical world of virtual learning. But all this is possible only when a big fraction of the country can avail these benefits. The ICT Development Index shows that India stands at 134th out of 176 countries. And this makes our condition of digital literacy quite ‘DISMAL’.
The count of digitally illiterate people in the country is equally depressing. And naturally, it makes them incapable to make the most of the ICT revolution.
6. Internet Connectivity issues
In India, several students still do not have access, support, infrastructure, and handholding to make the most of virtual education.
As per researches, the biggest challenge with online education in India is its digital infrastructure. In the pre-pandemic time, only a fraction of Indian cities (top 50 to 100) had broadband accessibility.
This is definitely not a good sign of a country that is fully prepared for the digital revolution.
7. Time management and other skills
Online schooling demands a specific skill set and needs strong time management skills. This means that students should be able to be self-directed and must not be teacher-dependent most of the time.
The regular Indian schooling environment has a sort of spoon-feeding pattern where the teacher is given a lot of importance.
Many Indian students, therefore lack time management and other self-directed learning skills which makes them lag behind in an online learning environment.
8. Managing Screen time
An online school needs to manage the study duration of students to make it ‘SAFE’ and manageable for them. The Human Resource Development Ministry recommends a maximum of 3 hours of screen time for students. And not every online school can manage to plan education within this safe screen time duration.
This can make online schooling harmful for the child’s health in the end.
9. Acceptance of online learning
In India, there are several institutions that still consider online education as an inferior alternative to mainstream schooling. This makes online schooling a bit ‘STIGMA’ prone and students fear its ready acceptance at all institutions later on. These issues can be even more serious if the institution is not fully accredited.
The student might just be left with nothing much in their hands.
10. Quality of learning content
While the world is banking upon the benefits of online education, India still needs a better online learning structure within its core structures. The quality of online content is also a cause of concern at times.
Because it seems to be poorly created with spellings, grammatical, and other language flow errors.
But with all these challenges and workable areas of online education in India, there is still a ray of hope for us!
We can test and compare all the online schools to evaluate the options that are valid to be considered. At Online Schools India, our team of online learning experts works to develop a comparative analysis of all the schools available to us.
