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INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone

As you all know the global crisis of the COVID-19 has impacted the
Education Sector tremendously. The pandemic has forced the sector to shift
to a virtual mode of learning. The crisis has allowed various educational
innovations to bloom. There has been a significant rise in use of online
tools like Zoom, Google Classroom, mobile applications etc. India has been
responsive in utilizing existing national and state-level platforms like
DIKSHA, E Pathshala, E Basta etc. In this presentation we will be discussing
in detail each of these aspects

So let’s look at the online education industry before the pandemic

Significant advancements are being made in online education in India as a

result of its exponentially developing technology. India’s explosive internet
growth in rural and urban areas is a driving force behind the rise of online
education. The low-cost data revolution and the government’s digital push
have made access to internet more diverse and inclusive. India now has
more rural internet users than urban internet users

The online education market in India was worth $247 million USD in 2016
and was expected to reach approximately $1.96 billion USD by the end of
2021.Concurrently, it is estimated that the number of paid online education
users will grow to 9.5 million by 2021.These figures don’t account for the
COVID-19 pandemic, so it is entirely possible that the projected estimates
will fall short of reality as more and more education is pushed online.

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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, As of
12 January 2021, approximately 825 million learners are currently affected
due to school closures in response to the pandemic. Early childhood
education and care (ECEC) as well as school closures impact not only
students, teachers, and families, but have far-reaching economic and
societal consequences. School closures in response to the pandemic have
shed light on various social and economic issues, including student debt,
digital learning, food insecurity, and homelessness, as well as access to
childcare, health care, housing, internet, and disability services. The impact
was more severe for disadvantaged children and their families, causing
interrupted learning, compromised nutrition, childcare problems, and
consequent economic cost to families who could not work. In response to
school closures, UNESCO recommended the use of distance learning
programmes and open educational applications and platforms that schools
and teachers can use to reach learners remotely and limit the disruption of
education.

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CHALLENGES IN INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM DUE TO COVID 19

PANDEMIC

 Digital literacy and technical issues: During lockdown period for

Covid-19, the educational institutions are depending mostly on use of
online platforms which becomes very difficult for the computer
illiterate learners to manage. Some may suffer due to poor internet
connectivity in their locality.
 Self -motivation and Social Status: Motivation of the learners is
highly necessary to explore the facilities of using online support
 services during the pandemics which is lacking in some learners.
Some financially weaker section may not afford the purchase, the
required technical gadgets or high - speed internet services for online
learning.

 Unrehearsed teachers and students for online education: Not all

teachers and students are good at it or at least not all of them were
ready for this sudden transition from face to face learning to online
learning. Most of the teachers are just conducting lectures on video
platforms such as Zoom, Google meet etc. which may not be real
online learning without any dedicated online learning platform.

 Time Management
In many cases students find difficulty in managing their time with
online learning. Online learning is completely new for them and
requires intensive work. They need a scheduled planner to manage
their time in an effective manner. Online learning provides flexible
time unlike traditional classrooms. But some face difficulties in
adjusting to the time required for online learning.

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Disadvantages of online education

Online education means more screen-time, excessive screen-time can lead

to all sorts of physical ailments like poor posture or headaches. But it can
also be a personal issue to students who struggle with learning from or
focusing on screens. Especially since the internet is geared to distract
students with social media and entertainment just a click away from the
learning material.

Online education May Create a Sense of Isolation, some students possess

the ability to work independently, while others find comfort in their
community on campus with easy access to professors or their fellow
students. Online education must support the social aspect of learning to
match the effectiveness of traditional classes.

Online education is limited to certain disciplines it is often theory-based

and lacks practice-based learning. Complex topics, operative techniques,
and practices that require a physical environment are best conducted in
person.

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DIGITAL INITIATIVES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Ministry of education in consultation with various states and UTs, have

taken many initiatives to ensure that the school going students don’t lag
behind in their studies.

First one is PM e-Vidya:

This has been initiated to unify all efforts related to digital/online/on-air

education to enable multi-mode access to education. This initiative includes

1. DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing)

It is a national platform for school education available for all states
and the central government for grades 1-12. It can be accessed
through a web-portal and mobile application.
2. SWAYAM Prabha Tv channels are meant to support and reach those
who do not have access to the internet. 32 channels are devoted to
telecast high quality educational programmes.
 3. Swayam MOOCs for open schools and pre-service education
Online MOOC courses relating to NIOS (grades 9 to 12 for open
schooling) are uploaded on SWAYAM portal; around 92 courses have
started and 1.5 crore students are enrolled

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E Basta

This project has been created as part of the Government’s Digital India
initiative to make school books accessible in digital form as e-books. The
web-based application can be installed on tablets for navigating the
framework.
E Pathshala

Developed by NCERT, e Pathshala for showcasing and disseminating all

educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a
variety of other print and non-print materials through website and mobile
app.

The education sector was allotted Rs.93,224 crore for 2021, with Rs
54,873 crore for school education and literacy and Rs. 38,350 crore for
higher education sector.

The various e-learning platforms of the HRD Ministry have seen an

unprecedented combined access of over 1.4 crore since 23rd March 2020.
The National Online Education Platform SWAYAM has been accessed nearly
2.5 lakh times till yesterday, which is about a five time increase over the
figure of 50,000 strikes in the last week of March. This is in addition to
about 26 lakh learners already enrolled in the 574 courses available on the
SWAYAM platform.  Likewise, nearly 59000 people are viewing the videos
of the SWAYAM Prabha DTH TV channels every day, and more than 6.8 lakh
people have watched these since the lockdown began.
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How the pandemic affected edtech startups

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to exponential growth in the adoption of

online education. Some of the edtech startups that have seen massive
traction amid the coronavirus lockdown those are:

1.BYJU’S

During the initial days of the lockdown, Byju’s offered students free access
to its app, causing its total registered users jumping more than 25% to 50
million. The company has also fast-tracked a number of developments —
such as live classes and localized language — to support more students
during the outbreak. BYJU’S saw 7.5 million new users on its platform since
it started offering free access to content. In April, BYJU’S grossed a record
monthly revenue of Rs 350 crore.

Q&A

Have you heard about the online platform Vedantu before covid 19?

See, may people were not aware of these education platflorms before
lockdown but now since online education is gaining importance
people have become aware of these platform’s

2.Vedantu

During the initial period of the pandemic, Vedantu made all its live classes
free. This move led to clear improvements, it recorded a revenue growth of
80 percent between April and May 2020 — achieving its highest growth in
the last two-plus years. The number of subscribers on the Vedantu
platform has grown exponentially to 6.5 lakh additional learners across K-
12 and competitive exams such as JEE and NEET. During the lockdown,
Vedantu has crossed a watch time of one billion minutes across its platform
and channels.

3. Great Learning

Edtech startup Great Learning annual revenue rose 150 percent to Rs 325
crore as the coronavirus lockdown boosted demand for learning courses
aimed at equipping professionals with new skills. The seven-year-old
startup had over 25,000 users from 85 countries on its platform across its
post-graduate programmes in FY20.

4. Board Infinity

This edtech startup has seen its revenue soar 400 percent in financial
year2020. It recorded the highest growth in terms of monthly revenue in
the lockdown months of April and May, expanding 30 percent over the
March numbers.

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COVID IMPACT ON MEETING APPS

Following the COVID-19 outbreak last year, attending online classes

became the norm. The use of online video conferencing apps has
skyrocketed over the past year. Let’s look at how this impacted various
meeting apps

Google Meet
 Google Meet has over 50 million downloads on Play Store as
work-from-home, online classes numbers have grown during
the COVID-19 pandemic period. Since January, Meet’s peak
 daily usage has grown by 30 times. Meet is hosting 3 billion
minutes of video meetings and adding 3 million new users
every during this pandemic.

2.Zoom

 In May 2020, Zoom was having 200 million daily meeting

participants. The figure had risen to 300 million in a month
by June as compared to just 10 million users in December
2019.
 Zoom generated $2.6 billion revenue in 2020, a 317 percent
year-on-year rise, with meeting participants increasing by
2,900 percent.

3.Microsoft Teams

 During the covid, Microsoft Teams saw four times rise in just
five months - from 20 million in November 2019 to 44
million in March 2020 and 75 million in April.
 From March to June 2020, Microsoft Teams noted a 894
percent growth. It added 95 million users in 2020. It
currently has 145 million daily active users.

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Future of online education in India

In coming years still there will be a growth in the online education market.
Online education is the growing face of the education system in India. Since
the New Education Policy (NEP) came in 2020, many changes have been
made in the education system that included online education as well.
With the emergence of a new set of rules formed by the Indian government
in 2020, we can say that digital ways of learning and education are going to
be the new normal. But this is going to come with lots of challenges

At least 50% of the Indian population is confined in rural areas and is

deprived of basic needs like electricity, water, shelter. Government needs to
take actions to provide them proper shelter and 24 hours availability of
electricity, only then the new guidelines of NEP will have any effect on that
sector of our society. In the upcoming future, online education is going to
be a part of every person’s life and we need to be prepared for the changes.
It’s not just an option anymore but a need.

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Conclusion
With the Digital India Program’s Vision to transform India into a digitally
empowered society and knowledge economy, the education sector in India
is poised to witness major growth in the years to come. Technology led
reach and easy access will bring about a socio-economic difference in the
lives of Indian learners.

A virtual learning initiative creates dynamic change in education portals in

this lockdown time period with the help of different Apps like Zoom app,
googlemeet. Online learning enhances opportunities for interactive co-
operative learning and the formation of communities of learners rather
than relsing on just the traditional face to face format E-learning is a means
of creating educational unification connecting people who are unified in
active learning communities by mastery of a shared knowledge and
common educational goals and aspirations.
E-learning is gradually replacing the traditional education and producing a
higher level of online-educated students which can potentially result in an
economic boom. While there is still various uncertainties and opinions
about online education system it is the best available method right now.

Q&A

Is online education as effective as face-to-face instruction?

Let’s hope this situation gets better near future & we will be back to
our offline day’s