Pune: The coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown has given a new outlook to teaching using virtual methods. Parents everywhere have sought after this method rather than risking children's life and sending them to school and other academic purposes in this pandemic scenario.
A Mumbai-based academic institute and school recently surveyed parents expectations on school resumption post lockdown, and found that 69 per cent of parents are satisfied with the virtual schooling program. Several also suggested that online tests can be brought in for high school students, as well as 49 per cent parents are hesitant to send their child back to school.
The survey was conducted by Mumbai based Kangaroo Kids Education Limited (KKEL) along with their brand Billabong High International Schools (BHIS) and Kangaroo Kids International Preschools (KK center). The respondents in the survey were 973 individuals from Mumbai and Pune. The objective of the survey was to get feedback on the virtual schooling program and expectations of the parents on school resumption post lockdown.
Out of the 973, the 69 per cent parents showed satisfaction towards virtual schooling, 5 per cent were unsatisfied and 1 per cent extremely unsatisfied, whereas 20 per cent were neutral and 5 per cent were other.
When asked in a survey what would they like school to add to their virtual schooling, there were several suggestions from parents which included making virtual classes more interactive, slow the pace of teaching, limit the number of children in one session, add online tests for evaluation, review the concepts taught at least once a week, sessions should be shorter, amongst others. There were 72 such suggestions requested by the parents to the school.
The parents have also requested schools to enforce virtual meeting etiquette and punitive action against students willfully disrupting the class. Several also requested to introduce 5-10mins of eye/hand exercise for children to help cope with screen time better.
An interesting part of the survey revealed when these parents would like to send their child to school, once the Maharashtra Government permits the same.
Only 21 per cent parents said they would like to send their child to school immediately. Whereas, 72 per cent said they would wait for a week and then send, 88 per cent wanted to wait for a few weeks and then decide, 49 per cent were hesitant to send the child to school and 63 per cent want virtual schooling to continue even after school reopens.
