New Delhi: Nearly 85% of Indian students in higher education institutions feel they only learn half of what should be because of online teaching with the emergence of a pandemic while around 88% of university officials can take up to three years to bridge the gap in learning, the latest survey said , Edtech’s teamlease education technology solution provider surveyed more than 700 students and officials from 75 Indian universities to assess the learning gap in higher education during a pandemic.
Nearly 85% of student respondents believe they failed to learn 40-60% of their course material, he said.
Manjula Chowdhry, Dean (academics) at Kurukshetra Haryana University, said values did not reflect learning losses because the exam was being carried out online.
“Everyone gets high scores, but when you interact with them, you realize that learning does not occur except a small number of students who motivate themselves and can learn themselves,” he said.
P Subrahmanya Yadapadithaya, VC from Mangalore University, shows that online education cannot be used to train students in soft skills.
He observed that student answers to online examinations “showed severe processes and poor internalization”.
The gap in learning outcomes has been recognized throughout the world.
World Bank data shows that almost 220 million students have faced the burden of pandemic impacts on education.
However, the learning gap felt among students in developed countries and India is Stark.
Surveys blame five factors for gaps in learning: digital gaps, slow governance in government institutions, pre-existing capacity deficits, longer locking in India than other countries and weak online learning content.
C L Admitters, Registrar of Hemchand Yadav Vishwavidyalaya in Chhattisgarh, said students scored well in open book exams, but it did not reflect at their level of knowledge.
“Sixty percent of students who will not be promoted are currently promoted with good grades,” he said.
Mohammed Nafees Ahmad Ansari, director of the Distance and Online Education Center at the University of Muslim Aligarh, said the learning gap was seen by the teacher.
There is also a decline in the participation of female students because of their inability to access digital platforms, Ansari said.
Shantanu Rooj, CEO Teamlease Edtech said that the main reason for the learning gap was because the Indian education ecosystem was not digitized in time.
ROOJ said their research showed that it would last almost three years to bridge this learning gap.
E-classes that lead to the learning gap in higher education: surveys
