Webinar on education 2020-21: Here's how top academicians plan to provide learning in post-covid era

In the webinar conducted on April 28, India’s top academician of prominent institutes participated to talk about the effect of the novel coronavirus outbreak on education and the efforts being made to prevent the academic loss, conduct exams and release results.

The COVID-19 outbreak ruptured the education system of the country. The deadly pandemic led to the suspension of classes, postponement of exams, delay in results and more. Further extensions of the nationwide lockdown in order to contain the virus plagued the students across the country with questions, doubts and uncertainties regarding their future. In the midst of the prevailing crisis, the Times of India conducted the second season of its ‘Mission Admission’ initiative.

TOI conducted a four-day series of education webinars where a panel of top academicians, school head, education counselors and tech gurus answered questions that are raising anxiety among students. In the webinar conducted on April 28, India’s top academician of prominent institutes participated to talk about the effect of the novel coronavirus outbreak on education. As everyone is aware that the academic year of 2019 ended abruptly because of the pandemic outbreak, these academicians discussed the consequences their institution and the students faced due to the COVID-19 spread and the steps they are taking to curb the loss.

The panel that included Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, V Ramgopal Rao, Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore, Himanshu Rai and former AICTE chairman, SS Mantha discussed the Indian Academic Year 2020-21 and how it is going to be different. The Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University Suhas Pednekar and the Vice-Chancellor of Pune University Nitin Karmalkar were also a part of the chat.

Men sitting on the helm of these dream colleges define the way forward by discussing ways to school the college graduates, sitting arrangements of the students maintaining the norms of social distancing, completing the unfinished business of 2019 i.e. exams and placements and more. Talking about how the pandemic affected the education sector and what the academic session 2020-21 looks like, IIM Indore Director Himanshu Rai stated that, “suspension of classes, postponement of examinations and shift from lecture rooms to online mode is challenging. It might appear that shifting online is easier for the institute such as ours but one had to evaluate how much the students are comfortable shifting online.  He further added that a recent survey established that the percentage of faculty who were comfortable with the shift from classroom lectures to online teaching was higher than that of students.”

While questioning the quality of bandwidth that people have due to poor connectivity of lack of internet facility, Mr Rai called it an opportunity to use technology as an enabler for these changing times and make more people aware of the wide usage of technology.  Developing online education into a pedagogical tool and coming up with blended programmes is one way the academic activities will change.

Talking about the delayed academic session, IIT Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao said that the institute already lost about six weeks of teaching. The theory is still manageable but challenges are being faced with laboratory work, research work, conducting exams and more. There are options like take-home exams with cameras but then what about the research? Many of the students need access to labs for the research and they are at a complete loss.

Mr Rao also stated that the institute started off by conducting online classes for two weeks but received a lot of complaints from the students due to lack of bandwidth. Later, the institute declared vacations from April 20 to June 25 and now we have decided to re-open in July.

Talking about the academic calendar, Mr Rao said that the new batch will join in August onwards. In the month July and August, the current semester will end and the next semester will start September onwards. That’s the plan right now but let’s see what happens.

Lakhs of students are waiting to take the last year's exam at the Mumbai University, pointing at the same the Vice-Chancellor of MU, Suhas Pednekar was asked about his plans to face the challenges. MU is one of the largest Universities, the task to conduct exam and declare results is huge. Meetings are being conducted with all the concerned stakeholders, VCs, education minister and more. The university will work on UGC guidelines. The situation is not similar in every area, some areas come under green zones others are under red. Various guidelines are being formulated for all.

In addition to this, the Vice-Chancellor of Pune University Nitin Karmalkar added they are having discussions with faculties, student organisations, different universities, VCs and more. 7.5 lakh students need to take exams and the scale is massive. The university has prepared an outline to conduct exams, begin new sessions and more.

Former AICTE chairman, SS Mantha mentioned the availability of online courses and study material that can assist students to prevent academic loss. In this context, IIM Director Himanshu Rai added that there is a need to establish a blended programme that can create equality between a one-hour classroom lecture and a one-hour online education module. When this equality will be achieved, conducting online classes or imparting online education would become simpler and easier.

Pune University opens its gates to many international students, talking about the upcoming admission process for such students and the students who will be graduating this year whose visa will soon expire or would have already expired, Professor Karmalkar stated, as far as the new admissions are concerned most of the students come from South Asian countries and we stay in constant contact with their embassies. He further added that the admissions will happen but for the initial period we might ask them to stay at their place and study only. Once the situation will be under control, we will ask them to relocate and get enrolled in their respective colleges.

Talking about the post-COVID world, IIM Indore Director stated that it will be the new normal and we have already started figuring out the ways to live with it. We have decided to follow the precautionary laid down by the health ministry. There will be sanitizers in every corner and there will be strict advisory for students to follow all the norms.

When asked about the beginning the new academic year from September as recommended by UGC and how it is going to be, whether it be a continuous a year without any break or holidays or not,  MU vice-chancellor Suhas Pednekar stated that it will be too early to comment on this. Decisions will be taken depending on the situation.

Upon asking about the future of education considering the prevailing emergencies, IIM Indore Director expressed that it not easy comment but it is definite to say that the student won’t have to come to attend the classes always. The courses available online would be capable enough to impart quality education. Talking about the impact of COVID-19 on placements, Mr Rai expressed that the placements have not faced a major impact. However, there are summer internships that have got deferred. Taking the broader perspective, we can say that the placements would be slightly affected as the companies would be re-organizing itself for which recruitments will happen. But, now the companies would be looking for candidates with a different set of skills such as complex decision making, decision making, negotiation making, coordinating with others and more.

Answering to one of the students about the range of dates of the interviews for MS PhD interviews at the IITs in the coming academic year, Mr Rao said that the interviews will be done through online mode, no student will be asked to come to the campus. Also, this year at IIT-Delhi all the MTech admissions will be made using the GATE score. Earlier, the institute used to conduct interviews, in addition to the GATE score, however, this won’t be the case in this academic year.

Another student asked the IIM Indore director that will his/her admission be considered cancelled if s/he fails to submit the passing certificates of their graduation due to the delay in the process, to this Mr Rai stated that the student will be given ample of time to produce the documents. However, if the student fails in his/her final year exam, the admission will be considered cancelled.

Asking about the BTech admissions in IITs, a student asked about the changes that will occur in the admission process due to the pandemic outbreak, to this the director of IIT Delhi stated, right now the admission remains the same. The admission will take place through JEE Main Exam 2020 and JEE Advance Exam 2020. He further added that the time has come where we need to look beyond admission, exam and placement. The current scenario is giving us time to discover and innovate. The Pandemic led to various discoveries and innovations and that’s worth noticing.

Answering why universities are not simply cancelling exams and promoting students, MU vice-chancellor, Suhas Pednekar stated that we have all the options and the decisions will be taken depending upon the changing situation. For now, we can say that exams will be conducted but in a different format. It is easy to cancel exams but later on, it will affect the placement and career graph of the students. We are preparing various guidelines to conduct exams smoothly. He further added that we are dependent upon the prevailing situations to conduct exams but in case students need help with other documents they can always write an email to the college authorities and get the work done.

The panel further advised students to utilize this time to study and work on the subjects they are not good at. The students must not stay under the impression that the exams will not be conducted.

Talking about conducting lectures in the post-coronavirus world, the IIT Delhi Director stated that they are thinking to conduct lectures online even when the students will return to the campus. A module will be made through which students will be able to attend lectures staying in their hostel rooms.

The panel also talked about the blended mode of teaching that will add value to education in the future. Moving to the end, the panelist made sure that the universities will decide the modes to conduct exams depending upon the ongoing situation. Students will be informed about the schedule much in advance to prepare well. 

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