Online Education in Pakistan during Covid-19

Covid-19 transformed the education system of the entire world. In less than a month, most part of the world had shifted to online education system, a concept previously very foreign and it’s easy to say that it created a lot of hurdles for both students and teachers. In Pakistan, particularly it was no secret, how this big shift in the education system had gained different reactions from students and teachers. Let’s analyze both benefits and disadvantages of online education and what potential it has in our future.

Benefits- Online education is cost-effective, innovative, provides flexibility and easy access to quality education for which one may have to travel long distances including overseas, reduces social and physical hurdles, allows practitioners to grow their skillset alongside work, teaching more students how to use electronics for schooling, and lastly challenges the limited registration of students.

Disadvantages-  Firstly for a developing country like Pakistan, the access to facilities like internet and computer is very limited. This means shifting to online education posed a threat to the education of low-income students and rural schools. This also mean higher dropout rate than before and an increase in literacy gap for low-income students, districts and developing countries like Pakistan compared on the global level. Secondly, the quality of teaching and management online remains questionable. It can not be ignored that not all teachers are equipped with the understanding of technology and how well to incorporate it in their teaching. This in turn also creates confusion and hardships for students. Then there is also the obvious drawback that is online education sacrifices in-person interaction which builds communication skills which are highly important in professional life.  Pakistan also faces the issue of electricity alongside lack of access to digital devices and internet which adds on to more hardships faced by both parties in online education.

Hence, it can be concluded that online education is likely to be a success only for advanced and well- developed countries with a stronger IT sector and prevalent knowledge of use of electronics and internet among people.

Citation

Rehman, A. U. ., Qudratullah, & Bakhtiar Khan. (2021). Challenges to Online education in Pakistan during Covid-19 & the Way Forward. Social Science Learning Education Journal, 6(07), 503–512. Retrieved from http://sslej.in/index.php/sslej/article/view/3481

Author: Javeria Khalid