“Our life has changed”

Manavi* is a 17 year old, ambitious 12th grader who is preparing for NEET through a coaching institute in Jaipur while being enrolled in a dummy school in Alwar, Rajasthan. She currently lives with her family in Alwar.

Manavi begins by sharing that she likes to try new things and agreed for this conversation since it was about the unprecedented, present situation that we are all experiencing. She is forthcoming about the changes in her life. Her daily schedule involves attending online classes and having meals with family, and she studies 10–12 hours every day.

The slowdown during the pandemic has provided her with more family time. For example, her grandfather is a doctor and has more free time these days, giving Manavi a chance to discuss current affairs, politics and cultural stories with him. Such conversations have sparked her interest in the socio-economic happenings around. Simultaneously, she also adds that she gets more time to play games, especially outdoor games, a contrast from Sarthak’s experience in the last blog.

Q. How is this form of education different from physical classes?
A. “It is totally different. If we have any query we cannot ask the teacher.”

The coaching classes have a multi-layered format where students attend recorded and live classes on alternate days, the latter with the objective to solve students’ queries in real-time. Manavi appreciates the asynchronous format where she can watch recorded lectures at her own pace. These also enable her to avoid network issues that interrupt live classes.

She does not, however, sound confident about the real-time ‘doubt solving’ classes and explains that teachers are unable to attend to 100 students at the same time. Teachers also use messaging platforms like whatsapp and telegram to address student queries, but she adds that it is difficult to understand numerical problems and other applied concepts through these media. The coaching classes have also defined times for self-study, though there are no structured opportunities for peer learning in this format.

Manavi’s nostalgia for spending time with her friends is evident throughout the conversation. She was also able to meet her friends till a few days back but due to the spike in covid cases which led the authorities to impose another lockdown. These days, she engages with them through online media like video calls, though adding that “video calls mein who baat nahi hoti (video calls are not the same)”.

Q. What do you miss the most about education shifting online?
A. “Things become very serious.”

Manavi mentions that earlier the classes would be much more interactive as teachers used to share anecdotes and jokes, thereby providing a vent to the high pressure that students preparing for competitive exams experience. Online classes, however, focus only on content and the environment seems tensed and ‘tight’. She repeats the challenges posed due to network issues, a problem that seems specific to small town infrastructure. But, Manavi seems to be adapting to studying alone in front of the screen without talking to anyone else. “Everything is self-study now”, she adds.

Q. Do you see any benefits in the current system of education?
A. “Concentration has increased. Earlier we would also talk to each other and spend time together, or even distract the teacher sometimes but now everything is fixed. There is also increase in patience as we listen to the videos patiently. Everything has pros and cons.”

Interestingly, the benefits that she mentions are the same as the challenges she had identified earlier in the conversation, i.e. sole focus on academic content during classes and lack of peer interaction. While in the short term this burst of patience and concentration might seem beneficial to all stakeholders, educators need to question if this is sustainable?

The highly competitive entrance exam preparation environment is already a cause for mental health issues amongst teenagers in the country. The added pressures of uncertainty of prospects during a pandemic, sudden shit to online education and lack of sufficient teacher and peer interaction, can have long term effects on adolescent health in the country.

While Manavi has had conversations about the pandemic with her family and friends, her teachers haven’t broached the topic. They also do not seem to realize that online classes are a new phenomenon not only for them, but also for the students.

Q. What are your suggestions for the teachers?
A. “They should be more patient. They have to increase their skills about online teaching.”

Manavi reports that instead of listening to the students teachers often react and become “hyper” if there is an A/V problem. She adds that teachers need to build skills to make it more convenient for the students, especially for the students who are in younger grades. She shares the example of her brother who has just joined class 6th with two new subjects (Sanskrit and Social Science) and doesn’t know how to study these subjects. When asked for suggestions for the post-covid classrooms, she suggests that teachers should ensure revision so that the doubts can be cleared.

“All students would appreciate that (revision)”.

We close the conversation discussing society’s newfound appreciation for frontline workers like cleaners and drivers, in addition to medical professionals who ensure that society continues to function amidst a pandemic.

I exit the conversation wondering about the missed opportunity of harnessing this young learners’ new found interests in socio-economic-political issues and anxious about the sustainability of an online coaching format that further isolates students and intensifies competitive pressures.

*a pseudonym is used to protect the participants’ identity since she is enrolled in a ‘dummy’ school, a culture promoted by coaching classes for competitive exams.

Please note that appropriate consent was documented and the interview was conducted on zoom as part of an interview series with students in classes IX-XII about their experiences with online education and the pandemic. To receive updates about these interview blogs and analyses, please subscribe to CovEd Conversations.