HARDSHIPS brought by Covid-19 have resulted in transforming us into a skilled human capital and now we are adequately equipped with the use of online teaching and learning.

While not many students have been reported to have taken these sessions very seriously, the majority of teachers learned ways of sharing content online, probably due to compulsions from their employers.

I remember it was difficult for me to sit down in front of the camera and deliver a lecture. Being a seasoned teacher who cannot teach unless they get students’ eye contact, sometimes in the initial days of recording I felt awkward and pointless looking into the camera.

It took me long to add my gestures as well as occasional jokes. Since most students, excluding senior ones, did not know how to behave, they were muted and not allowed to share their screen, which means a teacher was deprived of knowing how well or otherwise the lecture was being delivered.

These mentioned above and perhaps many more are the wonderful learning outcomes that Covid-19 brought along with it. The important thing in this regard is that this acquired skill by many teachers must not go waste.

Even if we get over with Covid-19, we must continue to utilise this distant teaching and learning; else we would unlearn all that came at a huge cost. The entrepreneurs of private as well as governing bodies of public institutions, textbook boards, the Higher Education Commission and other concerned

should all endeavour to build upon the already acquired threshold level in this regard.

The government is the most powerful institution and can do many things in this regard. First of all, it may hire a pool of quality teachers’ online lessons for its public school system.

This way many students would be able to benefit from high quality teachers without having to get admission to in esteemed private institutions. Secondly, the government should develop in-house (country-based) software for online lecturing so we do not depend on Google, Zoom or other software.

The ministry of science and technology, which is already working on inventions and new ways of addressing local needs, may get this done through Pakistan-based software houses.

All calamities pose havoc but leave many lessons to learn. Earthquake in 2005 united us as never before though we could not gain any significant, consistent outcomes through it.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shook the entire world and one of the important outcomes in terms of teaching and educating the nation is the distant teaching/learning process that ought to continue to exist in some forms in future.

Syed Farhan Basit

Gujranwala

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2020