Despite schools being closed since March, students have been required to continue their learning through online education. Due to different circumstances, ‘online learning’ has had its range of psychological effects on our students.
Many crucial exams have been cancelled this year (GCSEs, A levels, SATs, etc.) and the grades were replaced by a combination of teachers’ predictions and a grade-calculating algorithm formulated by the government. These grades are quite important as they play part in shaping our future and knowing that we did not have a fair chance to attain the grades we want like the previous years has been quite understandably nerve wracking and has even led to protests across the country.
While some students have been worried about unfair exam results other students have been struggling to revise for upcoming exams: everybody has a different atmosphere at home- and not all of them are suitable learning environments. Some may live in busy households where it's hard to get a moment of peace let alone take 6 hours of online classes; others may live in abusive households where they don’t feel safe; and most may live very normal and healthy homes but not everyone can learn through a computer and may need someone to physically be there and teach them to fully grasp the concept. So, it is clear that not everyone would have found it easy to keep up with work during the several months of quarantine before schools reopened. This has caused an immense amount of stress for student all across the country.
With age comes responsibility, so to an extent it was expected that older students may struggle due to their increase in responsibility and work load, however a topic that has is being overshadowed is the effect of online learning on younger children. During the first few years of education, attending school was a lot less focused on academics but more on adjusting to an environment outside of home and developing key skills such as learning to share, communicate and listen to others. These fundamental qualities cannot be developed through a computer or staring at a screen.
Although no immediate impacts of these have been displayed yet, we can hope that schools will provide the right facilities for students once they return to school – in hopes to reduce any negative impacts quarantining has had on the them.
Neha Ravula
