S. Vishnu Sharma
COVID-19 has created both negative impacts and opportunities in the educational sectors, said Sankar Viswanathan.
Vice president of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) was speaking on the outbreak of corona virus in the country and its affects on education sector in India.
COVID-19
A multi-pronged stratagem is necessary to accomplish the catastrophe and build a resilient Indian education system in the long term, he said.
As far as Education in COVID-19 times is concerned, the swift, unexpected change from conventional learning to online learning seems to be difficult for the countries like India.
Since the online learning was not equipped fully and the curriculum was not designed for such a template. This situation has created the risk of most of the students becoming passive learners and they appear to be losing interest due to low degree of attention span.
Speaking further on education in the present times, he said online teaching-learning pedagogy is not new to VIT.
‘We are pioneers in the paradigm shift. It is not just about altering the academic calendar but also pushing for new modes of learning, pedagogy and teaching that will lead to bigger, fundamental changes going forward.’
A large number of academic meetings, seminars and virtual conferences are moving online at VIT. We are practicing the approaches like integrated learning and experiential learning, with greater implementation of
technology, he said.
The access to technology and faculty fortitude is contributing a lot to the success of this paradigm classroom setting which will make sure that students are able to adhere to their academic calendar without any interruption.
Speaking on whether there will be a delay in commencement of admissions and classes subsequently this academic year due to COVID-19, Sankar Viswanathan said they are waiting for the directions from the regulatory agencies mainly for preparing the academic calendar for the forthcoming year.
They will be able to fix the dates for admission process and subsequent counselling.
The admission for all our PG programmes will be based on their Bachelor’s (Under Graduate) degree performance, instead of conducting an entrance exam (VITMEE).
For the 5 year integrated programmes like M.Tech. (Software Engineering) and M.Sc., once the 12th standard exam gets over, the students can apply for the same.
However, all these admissions will be only through online counselling mode. VIT has enhanced its online visibility via. engaging through online chats, the use of social media and through e-mails.
We have also arranged for virtual campus tours to showcase the campus life and facilities available.
For our UG admissions, we are working out to provide the flexibility in terms of test centres, extended window for test period with appropriate time periods for ensuring the sanitation of test centres and social distancing.
Admissions to the UG and PG programmes for the session 2020-21 will be completed by 31 August. If necessity
arises, provisional admissions will also be made and relevant documents of qualifying examination may be accepted up to 30.September and the academic session 2020-21 will be commencing from 1 August for old students and from 1 September for fresh students as informed by the regulatory bodies.
Speaking more about education in COVID-19 times, he said while the hope is for the outbreak to end soon. However, if the situation continues there could be a minor delay in commencement of education in next year as well.
On how educational institutions can change to handle situations like COVID-19 better in future, he said.
The teaching- learning pedagogy and the way curriculums are taught should change. Features that were once considered essential to education may be reviewed to principally accommodate life skills of the future.
There must be a shift required from conventional learning models to a model of mixed learning where both face to face delivery along with an online model will become a norm.
Speaking about COVID-19 impact on placements this time Sankar Viswanathan said amidst this pandemic situation, more than 100 M.E. and M.Tech. students have been offered a 10-month internship programme.
Nearly 25 companies have confirmed their participation in the remote internship process. Virtual onboarding across the world is working well for many companies.
The senior leadership is continuously monitoring the situation and leveraging technologies like telepresence and video conferencing to ensure business continuity.
Though the situation due to COVID-19 appears to be slightly abnormal, it will change in the course of time. The fresher’s are in demand in the near future.
According to the industry sources, a fresher who has just graduated from college would be having ideas that are relevant in today’s market and would be helpful in tackling issues in a different way.
A fresher can give a different perspective to any issue or give ideas that can attract new people.
Government bodies are also taking effective measures to start off their plants in India and this will surely bring in lot of opportunities in the upcoming days.
When asked about certain companies rescinding job offers owing to COVID-19 situation, he said the number of rescinded job offers was not high.
Prominent IT companies and other tech gaints who are visiting VIT for campus hiring assured that they would honour those candidates whom they have already rolled out the offer letter.
The commitments made to campus hired-freshers as well as lateral are being honoured by our recruiters. Soon after the pandemic situation, many industries from Europe.
USA will be starting off their plants in India and there are rays of hope regarding the placements. Speaking on how to prepare students to handle situations like COVID-19 in future and how educational institutions can boost the morale of students, Sankar Viswanathan said students should acquire skills like resilience, adaptability, collaboration, communication, empathy, creativity and emotional intelligence.
This pandemic situation has revealed that quick responses to cataclysms and quick implementation of alternative solutions in trying times are important for continuity and resilience.
This is also a momentous cue to the education community that the skills the students most need in this unpredictable world are an ability to handle unexpected realities, making informed decisions, creative problem solving, and perhaps above all, adaptability.
At VIT, beyond the electronic connection, we are connecting with them emotionally – especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty.
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We have an effective proctoring scheme at VIT. The proctors are allotted 15-20 students and they, in turn, interact with the students, support them mentally by ensuring academic and personal discussion.
At VIT, teacher well-being is paramount to building a workforce of compassionate change makers. Responding on the view point of reducing syllabus with regards to school and college education owing to COVID-19 impact, he said there is no need for bringing down syllabus.
Already, we are conducting online classes and there are so many ways to complete the syllabus. We should not compromise on the quality of education.
As far as the school education is concerned, the students coming from the rural background may not be able to have the access to internet sources.
For few subjects like Social Science and languages, the syllabus may slightly be compressed and not for Maths, Science courses.
He also said the COVID-19 situation would witness new learning and teaching methods in our education system.
Many universities and schools prefer to conduct the teaching-learning process through online mode. Continuing education through alternative learning pathways, as soon as possible, must also be a top priority right now.
The platforms like Coursera and edX have a good reach amongst millions of students in India. Some institutions have already started edX MicroBachelors and MicroMasters programs into their on-campus IT and computer application degree.
However, online teaching-learning will not be an effective solution for the courses related to skill development – the laboratory and the project oriented courses.
The adoption of technology in education has led to an unprecedented transformation from teacher-centric education towards student-centric education.
Virtual classrooms and various online tools are helping to continue and enhance the engagement between the teacher and students as close to the classroom type experience.
The COVID-19 situation may give rise to new courses in the field of engineering There are more chances of arising new courses both in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fields of engineering.
A collective effort of engineering teams across the disciplines resolved many disasters and it will become more now.