Inadequate Training, Insufficient Technical Support: Teaching In The Age Of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic that triggered multiple lockdowns across the country has adversely affected the education system. With educational institutions shifting their gear from the traditional to the virtual model, learning methods have undergone a sea-change.

Classes and assessments are being conducted online. Education has moved from four walls to a screen; assuming a new meaning amid the crisis.

According to an India Today report, the pandemic has been the worst of times for teachers. It has altered and restructured 'life' for teachers. Never before it was imagined that digital education would have to be followed on such a massive scale.

Sitting and staring at the screen for hours and interacting with videos and voices was not something the teachers were prepared for. A number of reports highlighting incidents where the teachers were taking time to adapt to the digital mode made headlines in the past.

The new model of education restricts interaction and the scope for effective communication between the teacher and the students. The task of making concepts alive on the blackboard or reading a page from a book has been confined to screens. Screen indifference, inertia, and inattention are there instead of proper communication, India Today reported.

Lack of basic facilities, training, family interruption, external distraction, conducting assessments under home environment settings were some of the challenges faced by the teachers, as per a report published in Sage Journals

In some cases, the lack of institutional support such as unable to purchase advanced technologies, inadequate training, less technical support, and a lack of direction and clarity were reported, besides technical hindrances.

The concerns were divided under a lack of technical support which included insufficient technical infrastructure, little awareness of virtual teaching platforms, and security issues.

Teachers' personal problems, which include lack of technical knowledge, course integration with technology, negative attitude, and a lack of motivation, were found as the fourth category hindering their involvement in online teaching and assessments.

An online survey was conducted between April 29-May 29, last year, which had 550 Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) teachers as participants. The data revealed that the inequalities between private schools and government schools were enhanced due to online learning. This was intensified by the fact that students from economically poorer backgrounds had become difficult to reach, and teachers had no idea how to support hard-to-reach students who were also adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lack Of Training

The data also revealed that teachers had not been trained in online pedagogies. Ed-tech companies have come forward, presenting themselves as a panacea to the issue with further consequences to teachers' profession, standing, and livelihoods. However, Ed-tech solutions are not relevant for hard-to-reach students or teachers in schools that teach hard-to-reach communities.

Bisma Waheed, a teacher from a private school based in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, uses Zoom classes and WhatsApp every day to deliver lessons to her students and distribute assignments.

"Education has been badly affected here since the last two-three years. We do not have any other option, at least we are trying to teach students something," Waheed told The Logical Indian.

"Online classes always come with issues like low connectivity. There are issues like video buffering, disrupted audio and other issues associated with it. Some students who have a good network tend to grab information, others miss out on the vital information in the process," another private school teacher Rabiya told The Logical Indian.

"We also face the issue a lot of times. It has happened on several occasions that I do not have a secure internet connection. Sometimes, no internet at all. Besides, disturbances tend to be there, be it family or other distractions from the outside, which at times builds frustration," she added.

Middle Age Teachers Suffer

Most of the teachers using online platforms are finding it difficult to adapt to technology-based teaching, which demands prior preparations, including lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations, tech-friendly student exercises, and assessment sheets to create interactive classes.

Virtual learning is proving more cumbersome to middle age teachers who find it challenging to maintain discipline in the class and are subjected to online bullying and harassment from students.

Some of them have resorted to sending projects to students and, subsequently, being available to pay heed to their requirements, rather than conducting classes on an online platform.

The study stated that 15–25 per cent of teachers lack preparedness for virtual classes and are worried about engaging with a disadvantaged group of students as well as large groups of students.

Salary Issues

A report by Central Square Foundation said that private schools with low-fee are going through a challenging phase as the parents, financially hit due to the pandemic, have been unable to afford school fees.

Since most of these schools depend on the revenue generated by fees, the teachers and additional staff did not get their salaries on time. Among the private ones, the severely affected were pre-nursery and primary schools, where no new admissions took place during this time.

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