Ahmedabad: Poor internet connectivity hampers online education the most, estimate 56% of teachers, while 44% believe it is lack of student attention. This was found in a survey by Extramarks Education, an online education technology company. The survey was conducted among 2,200 teachers to analyze the pros and cons of online education.
The fear of being infected with the new coronavirus is the reason why 45% of the teachers questioned did not prefer to resume their school tasks until there was no access to a vaccine against the deadly virus, according to the ‘study.
“Covid-19 has radically changed the lives around us and the education sector has been hit the hardest. To assess the interest and challenges of teaching students online, we surveyed 2,200 teachers in Gujarat. The results of the survey were surprising and require drastic changes in our current education system, ”said Shaishav Kayastha, Managing Director – West India, Extramarks Education.
About 2,200 of the 2,500 visiting teachers participated in the survey.
As ‘working from home’ has become a new norm and children have adapted to online education, poor internet connectivity is hampering student-teacher engagement, according to 56% of teachers surveyed. Several times teachers have had to cancel lessons due to technical issues. Students also had to miss classes or had difficulty connecting to the internet to study. On the other hand, many teachers seemed unhappy with the discipline.
About 44% of teachers felt that students are not paying attention during online lessons. Sleeping, using the bathroom frequently, eating or drinking during online lessons are some common behaviors that highlight student distraction.
On the positive side, around 75% of teachers said their teaching techniques have changed a lot due to the adoption of digital platforms. Learning from educational videos on YouTube, speaking confidently in front of a camera, converting a document to a picture, or simply downloading an audio file from a video were gigantic tasks for them before.