Virus Choked the Chalk?: Critiquing COVID-19 Pandemic from the Lens of an Educator
Education system is probably the only man-made setup which has never interfered with the eco- system. The educational organizations are second to none in the world when it comes to movingly illustrate the benevolence of nature for the entire human race. The Indian tradition, since the golden era of mankind, through its Gurukul system, has been a telling example of how mother nature is revered and protected in all possible measures. In the global scenario also, educational institutions have played a pivotal role in creating awareness about the importance of nature in varied aspects and there never has been a single practice that violated the laws of nature. As an important building block of academia, educators proclaim with swollen pride that it is solely their working model which has never proven to be harmful for nature but the present depressing scenario has wickedly turned the entire system upside down, leaving the educators, probably for the first time, anxious, nonplussed and vulnerable.
COVID-19 stepped silently in our lives and engulfed us like a whirlwind. The world is on the verge of marking the anniversary of COVID-19 outbreak, yet sadly the most eminent scientists, doctors and researchers worldwide are still not able to meet the quizzing eyes of the common mass. A cursory glance at the tally of devastating incidents in world history clearly projects that the education sector was last in the line to be acutely affected by them. Global history, however, in terms of coronavirus pandemic in the near future when the lives will be ‘normal’ and not the ‘new normal’, will always recall that the torch bearers of enlightenment and learning were also ‘infected’ by this seemingly ‘small’ virus.
The closing year of the second decade of the 21st century came as a profound shock to India as the global contagion of COVID-19 hit the nation hard. In the month of March when the first phase of nationwide lockdown was imposed, educational institutions all over the country were at the peak of conducting examinations. ICSE, ISC, CBSE along with autonomous academic bodies of some states were conducting annual board exams while in the higher educational institutes, even semester was nearing its completion. In the history of the board examinations in India, probably never have the exams been cancelled. Additionally, it is an unsaid rule in all the schools unto this date that with the commencement of the board examinations, leaves of all the teachers stand cancelled because they are required as invigilators and evaluators. In higher educational institutions, on the other hand, even semester is extremely crucial as it results in the culmination of a session, thereby, promoting students either to the next year of their degree programme or in the completion of the same. Needless to say that the teachers every year undergo the same amount of pressure and anxiety as their students, after all the final scorecard, though bears the name of the pupil, also mirrors the endeavours of the teacher. The year 2020, however, will be etched in the memory of every educator for not being an invigilator or an evaluator, but as a student who had to take up the toughest exam of his career too without knowing a prescribed syllabus and the date of exam announced beforehand.
The outbreak of any pandemic, events like war leading to acute social unrest, economic depression and the like have always left lives stranded, working places shut down and professionals clueless. In the form of the coronavirus pandemic, history has not merely repeated itself but a sad new chapter has been added to the history of the human race which clearly stands as a proof of the fact the wrath of nature falls on all alike. Before the devastation created by COVID-19, professionals from IT, hospitality, aviation, entertainment and other corporate sectors made it to the news bulletin for pay cuts and loss of jobs, but educators, fortunately never confronted similar doom’s day in their careers. However, today along with financial crisis and job insecurity numerous adverse circumstances are hovering over the beacons of knowledge like vultures over the parched land.
COVID-19 has broken havoc in the educational sector and has left its stakeholders comparatively more bereaved because a disturbing jolt of this magnitude was unexpected. The concept of ‘work from home’ never seemed to work for teachers as the teaching-learning process relied heavily on the physical presence of the teachers and the students in a classroom. Although, over the last decade with the influx of technology in educational system the pedagogical space has expanded its boundaries from 500 sq ft and concepts like virtual classrooms and flipped classrooms have started taking concrete shape, yet even in the most technologically advanced nations like USA, UK, Germany and France, technology is still not considered as a replacement of a teacher in the class. Teachers at regular intervals have equipped themselves with the latest ICT tools to empower their teaching methodology but least did they know that in the year 2020 without armour they would be left alone in the battlefield not only to struggle but also emerge victorious. Online classes felt like a thunderbolt on the teachers in India because till today in the majority of the educational institutions the traditional method of chalk and talk is preferred and considered effective. Teachers no doubt are upgrading their teaching skills but this sudden outbreak has left them baffled. With the outbreak of COVID-19 many educational institutes thrust the online teaching on all the educators without considering their age, technical competency, field of study etc. After a virtual training session of a couple of days, teachers were instructed to continue with the classes, conduct exams, evaluate answer scripts, prepare marks list and announce results.
Online teaching platforms turned out to be a nightmare for educators because of varied reasons. The coronavirus pandemic debunked the nation's tall claims of Digital India as one of the central pivots of the digital teaching-learning process i.e. the teachers themselves were left wanting in absence of proper platforms. Educational institutions continued to explore various means to give the best learning experience to the students the weight of which fell entirely on the shoulders of the educators. Teachers for a long time kept juggling from Google Meet to MS Teams to Zoom to fulfill the expectations of the management and the students, thereby inviting more mental pressure, difficulties in maintaining quality of the lectures and needless to say everyday struggle with technical glitches. In order to stay committed to their profession many educators bore the brunt of the apparently malicious intentions of the online interaction platform Zoom of surreptitiously collecting personal data of the users without their consent.
In the present times, when even the most technically sound individual is not immune to cyber threat, access to the personal information of the women educators especially is likely to have disproportionate impacts and this is not an assumption. Many disturbing incidents of teachers falling prey to Zoom bombing, peeping parents, students not following the appropriate netiquettes and at times resorting to inappropriate behaviour have already surfaced in global media. DU Executive Council member Rajesh Jha issued a statement to The Hindu stating, “Several women teachers have informed us that they were abused and harassed during these live classes.” Singapore has also banned a few online platforms after receiving complaints from the teachers. It must also be noted that teachers in addition to delivering lectures are also counseling the students to get past the hurdles. Every educator during this time of crisis is ceremoniously performing their role as ‘mother-teacher’, only to be rewarded thus? Over the past few years when discussions about mental health have become concerns of the entire humanity, it is heartbreaking to note that not a single word to stave off the feeling of meaninglessness gaining grounds in the heart of the teachers due to the present situation has been uttered. Numerous occurrences of such serious nature must sweat the brows of every civilized individual as it signals the crisis looming large over the ‘noble profession’.
Teaching, like the medical profession, is a full time job and the coronavirus crisis has firmly established this as a fact. To the uninitiated, it's absolutely necessary to highlight that teachers unlike other professionals do not have a set of rules laid out to them by the organization they are working for. A teacher’s job profile is multi-hued. They are not involved in the process of teaching and evaluation only, in addition to this they are counselors, mentors, guides and caretakers. The count does not stop at this. A teacher contributes in the process of nation building in the actual sense of the term because it's not a software engineer but a teacher who is deployed on duty when the common mass is exercising its right to vote. Architects and interior designers do not ring the bell of the houses they might have built and decorated when census is carried out by the government to update the National Population Register (NPR), a teacher does that. While banking professionals have planned a short family trip on second Saturday and the following Sunday, a teacher is on invigilation duty of an entrance exam which thousands of banking aspirants are taking. Never have the teachers spent quality time with family members on a national holiday because they are supervising the events to ensure smooth conduction of the cultural programs in their respective institutes.
While all other working professionals are working from home a significant percentage of teachers in New Delhi and other states are working as front line professionals going from door to door inquiring about the well being of every family member in the house, collecting data on the basis of which state governments are planning their future course of action. This has considerably added to the workload of the teachers as explained by Vikas Kumar, a physical education teacher in a school in New Delhi. Kumar, a Corona survivor himself is reporting at a dispensary in south-east Delhi and also teaching after the duty is over. This field work that educators are doing as part of their social responsibility has also put their health at stake and as a result more than 5000 teachers deployed on COVID-19 duty in New Delhi have contracted the disease. This work pressure has created chasm in their family life also as their children, spouse and parents are all encountering the same amount of anxiety as others but due to their negligible presence and availability the family members are feeling comparatively more insecure. Another heartbreaking fact is that unlike frontline workers who are reporting on duty on rotational basis educators are working everyday. Despite giving out more than they were employed for, teachers are in perpetual fear of pay cuts, insecurity of job and almost negligible health protection. Here, one cannot measure the plight of teachers employed in low income schools. Likewise, teachers of Performing Arts, Sports, Art and Craft and others whose subjects primarily enhance the practical knowledge and improve skills for which they require physical environment and constant guidance to the pupils are facing more challenges to sustain their jobs. Another significant point to be taken into consideration is that not all the educators have a personal computer but considering the online teaching scenario they are bearing additional expenses in procuring a personal computer duly supported by an interrupted internet facility.
Teacher is not only an expert in his field of study but is also well versed in the syllabus of life. Along with the professional achievements, teachers’ optimism enables them to maintain a firm foot in the trying circumstances. In the present time of crisis, educator's are probably the only professionals who have rendered their services at every possible front without calculating the risk it may pose. The endeavours of teachers must be singularly uploaded because all the hardships with which they continue to battle were not even heard of in their community. Consequently, the strategies they adopted and the solutions they designed were not based on any reference model and solely came out of their experience and wisdom because never has the education sector never experienced such a setback. During this time, educators have proudly shredded the myth that teachers cannot work from home. In fact, the far reaching consequences of the global contagion of COVID-19 further amplified in the context of the teaching learning process, opened new vistas in the education sector. Leveraging the crisis as an opportunity to deploy the digital technology education sector has made a significant jump. Over the past two decades as the face of Indian education has changed, teachers have also shown tremendous willingness to upgrade their teaching skills and become more technically sound to improve the quality of their teaching. With the rapid influx of technology in educational setups, more so because of COVID-19 crisis, traditional classrooms paved the path to a variety of ways of ‘doing school’. A majority of teachers globally switched to online platforms to deliver lectures for the first time in their career. The young brigade of teaching fraternity is making optimum use of e-learning platforms to improve the future prospects in their career while the teachers who have enriched the teaching community with their contribution for many years now readily adapted to the process of ‘re-learning’. CBSE’s podcast, Shiksha Vani and Diksha app became handy tools in the hands of all the educators even to those who are playing their final innings as an educator. Many tech savvy teachers also took a plunge and reached out to students by creating their own YouTube channels. The readiness of the educators and the willingness to make their handicap, their shield has contributed immensely in the existing pool of knowledge. Erudite professors from across the globe have joined hands with technology and have given free access to their lectures. In the present situation when teachers have to bear the brunt of global economic depression, they are making the reference material in the form of lectures, self authored books and research articles freely available to all the learners, for which they could have easily reaped huge monetary benefits. Teachers have thus proven that they like candles to burn themselves to enlighten the life of others.
Coronavirus pandemic has forced people around the globe to remain confined to within the protective walls of their houses but it could not challenge the zeal and the sense of duty etched deep in the hearts of educators. While teachers in the urban parts of the world took the challenge of online teaching in stride and dealing with multiple issues not only smoothly conducted the online assignments but also prepared themselves for the session to come. Educators in school and higher education institutions are ready for a faceoff with the coronavirus crisis. The academic calendar is mapped, blueprint of activities prepared, e-content designed and online platforms upgraded. Educators have taken a vow that the ‘new normal’ will not hamper the normal course of learning. Likewise teachers in rural parts of the country have moved a step ahead by taking the school to the pupils. Anganwadi workers, risking their lives, home delivered study material to students and to ensure inclusive learning involved parents in the learning process. Teachers with the relentless support from Aakar (Maharashtra), Sajag (Chhattisgarh) have enabled tribal children of Bihar, Telangana and Orissa continue with their studies so that the hard-fought struggle of every child to be educated does not go waste.
In addition to ensuring that coronavirus succumbs to the teachers’ preparedness and dedication, teachers are also committed to give unflinching support to make the new education policy a success. Teachers also zealously supported the decision of nullifying their vacation despite the fact that they were on their toes, working for extra hours during that part of the year when in ‘pre-covid era’ they planned family excursions. Teachers compromise on their family time to ensure that learning goes on. While teachers proactively accepted the challenge of online learning and undoubtedly have emerged victorious they also ensured that the process of self- learning should not suffer a setback. By restricting the movement of people all over the world COVID-19 has actually resulted in the creation of a comparatively more close knit community. Educators from different parts of the world joined hands to exchange knowledge through webinars, faculty development programmes, short term courses, workshops, special lecture series etc. and also motivated each other to not let a temporary phase of crisis affect the lifelong process of learning and acquiring knowledge. Educators are also continuously contributing to the vast ocean of research by making optimum use of open source libraries and other reference materials made available to every learner by the government together with carrying out additional responsibilities.
It is rightly said that the fruits of adversities are sweet, therefore, the hard work of teachers during the present depressing situation has started being recognized. For instance, Progressive Educators Platform (PEP) in collaboration with UNESCO has awarded school teachers for fulfilling their responsibilities and overcoming all odds during nationwide lockdown. West Bengal government has also announced the Siksha Ratna 2020 award to be conferred on the teachers for their support during coronavirus crisis. On the other hand, a survey has brought to recognition an overwhelming observation that many professionals have chosen teaching as a second career after experiencing the dedication of teachers in every part of the world during this ‘corona time’. Another heartwarming fact is that Assam and other state governments, taking a serious note of the educators’ health have decided to compulsorily conduct COVID-19 test for them before they join the school premises. Likewise, Russia has included teachers in the bracket of the first recipients of COVID-19 vaccine. Japan as a matter of fact, has allowed the entry of only teachers under ‘special circumstances’ in the country during the present time of crisis. All these efforts speak volumes of the stature a teacher has in every corner of the globe. To conclude it may safely be said that educators, the corona virus warriors, have lived every word of Albert Camus’ famous quote, “All a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories.”
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Dr. Khushboo Gokani, Asst. Prof., Dept. of English, REVA University, Bengaluru, Karnataka. E-mail: khushbooggokani@gmail.com