Emerging trends in education sector

Some States like Kerala have directed children to get back to schools from this new year onwards while Andhra Pradesh has already opened the schools, partially one might say, as it is an on and off affair now which is dependent on the parents. For those in the higher classes, it is digital time now. Situation is no different in the world. Post-Corona (phase one?) the issues confronting the educational institutions – at all levels – are different.

Millions of schoolchildren and university students are back in class, virtually or otherwise. Schools are reopening with strict coronavirus rules. There are many models— "class bubbles" that limit interaction with the rest of the school to hybrid curricula that are only partially in-person, to continue remote learning with all its problems for distracted students and stressed-out parents. Some schools in Europe and East Asia seem to have successfully relaxed social-distancing rules; others have reopened only to close again as infections spiked.

Many academicians are worried over the fate of the universities too. Universities are struggling even more than schools. Dorms and student socialising seem to be natural habitats for the virus. Private universities that are dependent on tuition payments could suffer if parents decide that remote learning isn't worth the exorbitant cost or if students paying full tuition don't come back. One thing is certain: Covid-19 has unleashed a revolution in digital learning that could disrupt academia forever.

Several universities have asked their professors to sort out the issues and find solutions that suit all. A major question being asked is whether the university will survive as it is? Will it have the usual power it enjoyed before Covid-19? Many universities, for too long, have been comfortably walled off from the pressure to change. Those retained their traditions, their ways of functioning and their teaching methods.

In fact, the old ways of education system and the teaching methods added lustre to it lending a different aura altogether. For centuries, a university's power derived from its ability to control access to scarce classroom seats, scarce faculty experts, and scarce job market credentials. The pandemic has forced the academy to adopt digital technologies that will make these resources abundant by letting students study whenever, wherever, and whatever they desire from faculty experts located around the globe.

At the same time, new online tools allow students to demonstrate their skills with a specificity and clarity that college diplomas and transcripts can't match. Educators are also looking at whether this poses any threat to the teaching systems. And they're right: The changes set off and accelerated by the pandemic are going to look a lot like the painful changes we've seen in other disrupted industries, such as retail, travel, media, and entertainment, where overconfident firms with overpriced products were decimated by new digital competitors, it is said.

For too long, universities have been comfortably walled off from these pressures. Instead of panicking, however, educators need to embrace these changes as an opportunity to fulfil their core mission: creating opportunities for as many students as possible to discover and develop their unique gifts and talents, and use those gifts and talents to make a difference in the world. A different world and a different challenge? Do we adapt ourselves to it?