Covid-19 has affected the whole world. It all started in December 2019 from Wuhan city, China. On 7th Jan 2020 Chinese authorities identified the exact cause and named it “2019-nCoV”. i.e., 2019 novel coronavirus. According to WHO, 205,338,159 cases (August 13, 2021) of coronavirus are confirmed dill date. In the context of Nepal, total 728,532 cases are confirmed out of which 10,239 people have lost their lives and 6,611,07 people are vaccinated. The novel coronavirus has widely affected the living-hood of people. It has immensely affected all the sectors like education, agriculture, business, tourism and so on. In the context of our country, Covid-19 has immensely impacted Nepal’s education sector.
Here’s how Covid has affected Nepal’s Education Sector:
Learning skills and personal growth
Due to the rise in Covid cases and nation-wide lockdown, all the educational institutions of Nepal have been closed for a long time. So, these colleges decided to conduct online class to continue the further courses. However, the schools and universities did not have any experience in conducting an online class. Also, most of the teachers did not have the proper skills to run online classes as they had never been trained to do the job. This has exceedingly affected the personal growth of young students. Personal growth is a prominent factor for a student’s successful career. However, lockdown has put a break on these factors. The students from urban areas or the students who have access to proper internet connection can get a huge benefit. But the students of rural areas do not have access to modern technology. That’s why, their education, personal growth and learning is on hold.
Cancellation of board examinations
The cancellation of examinations from time to time has created a decrement in student’s personal skills. Also, it is very difficult for the students to prepare for their board examination because the courses aren’t taught properly and the online classes are not so effective. The cancellation of board exams has stocked the student’s future planning. The first-year students from Tribhuwan University have been in the same semester since 2 years. It may look difficult to conduct board examination physically at this point. However, the institutions do not seem to be making efforts to adopt alternative methods to examine students’ understandability of the subject.
Lack of access to e-learning in rural areas
The students of urban areas have full access and knowledge of e-learning platforms and they can easily use them and attend the online class. But the people or rural areas, where the internet facilities haven’t advanced yet, cannot continue their further study. The teacher themselves aren’t aware of e-learning platforms and the government of Nepal is too late to train the teachers and students. A large part of the rural Nepalese population doesn’t have befitting devices that can easily support online classes. This has been the biggest factor for hindering proper digital education, among the rural population. However, in the cities majorly, students have been found to be engaged in online-learning. Some private institutions are conducting effective online classes too.
Financial issues
Most of the schools and colleges are conducting an online class but are taking the whole fee from the students. The students have used their own resources like the internet, laptop, and electricity and had to bear some more extra expenses for online classes. And it seems quite unethical to ask amenities fees from the students. This has been the reason for periodic disputes between the institutions and students and in some cases, guardians too. Similarly, some institutions haven’t been able to pay salaries to the teachers as well. Mid-sized schools and colleges are severely affected by Covid-19.
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