Online learning, a boon or a bane?
“Online classes aren’t real education: House panel,” reported Times of India, Mumbai edition dated 07 August, 2021. This was the conclusion made by the parliamentary standing committee on education. The committee said that disruption of physical school activities would likely to impair the cognitive capabilities of the students. The committee’s report observed that lack of digital facilities and adaptation either due to the inaccessibility of technology or the educational backgrounds of the parents to guide the students had contributed towards learning loss among students of all classes and regions. The report added that due to continued cessation of classes, learning loss had acquired critical dimensions. The report titled, ‘Plans to Bridge the Learning gap and Plans for Reopening of Schools,’ further reported that the learning loss of more than one whole academic year certainly would have weakened the foundational knowledge of the students in many subjects like mathematics, scien