Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Higher Education System in Assam

I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. This famous quote of Annie Frank strikes us an analogy that there is beauty in this planet still to discover. The civilizations have not ended yet. And that is why the world leaders, bureaucrats and various other stakeholders around the globe are working relentlessly to make the mother earth a better place during these unprecedented times.

As we know it very well how gloomy these days are due to the outbreak of the disastrous disease which is acting as a time-bomb against the survival of humanity. The World is experiencing one of the greatest pandemics in history. The city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, was the origin of a severe pneumonia outbreak in December 2019, attributed to a novel coronavirus. The International Committee on Taxonomy of viruses renamed the novel coronavirus (i.e, previously 2019‐nCoV) responsible for the current outbreak, as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). The disease that is responsible for creating havoc all around the world is the so-called CoronaVIrus Disease (COVID-19) and the virus responsible for this disease is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak, a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)” on 30th January 2020 and a “Pandemic” on 11th March 2020. 

Coronaviruses are known to circulate in mammals and birds. Some studies revealed that both SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV are zoonotic in origin, originally coming from bats with SARS‐CoV spreading from bats to palm civets to humans, and MERS‐CoV spreading from bats to camels to humans. Recent research has also reported that the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus likely originated in bats. However, like SARS‐CoV, MERS‐CoV, and other coronaviruses, the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus may have been transmitted to humans by an intermediate animal host. Therefore, the identity of the animal source of SARS‐CoV‐2 remains a key and urgent question yet. The two researchers from China named Shen Yongyi and Xiao Lihua identified the “Pangolin” as a potential source of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus based on genetic comparison of coronaviruses taken from pangolins and humans infected during the recent outbreak. They found the genome sequence of an isolated virus strain was 99% similar to that of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus. Some have stated the virus is an outcome of the "Natural Selection". Thus, whether pangolins acted as a direct intermediate animal host of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus or evolved through a natural selection is worth further investigation.

Education is vital for producing the calibre and diversity of graduates needed both for the economy that exists today and for the economy to which a nation aspires. It gears up competitiveness and growth by preparing professionals, like managers and engineers, medical personals, entrepreneurs, and teachers etc. Universities are also centres of research, innovation and development and thus by working with micro, small and medium enterprises support regional development. Higher education is both the aspiration of more and more young people around the globe and a fundamental requirement for employment in the industries that drive the global knowledge economy. The COVID-19 pandemic is not only creating havoc on the health of people, global economies but also having a devastating impact on the education system due to closure of Universities, Colleges and Schools around the world. The prolonged closure may severally impact the accessibility of education to the students and may result in the loss of academic learning, semester, academic calendar etc. A failure to sustain effective higher education systems can lead to perilous social upheavals, as youth fall outside the education system, unable to engage in active learning and uncertain about the future of their education and prospects. Societies are, then, confronted with a massive challenge of youth disengagement and deprived of the graduates needed to keep countries on track for social cohesion and growth.

In parallel with the world, there have also been observational impacts of COVID-19 on the Education sector of India and more specifically in the Higher Educational sector of the state of Assam. As per the AISHE (2018-19) report, Assam records a total of 22 Universities with 544 colleges (including private) affiliated to these 22 universities having a grand total enrolment of 700163 in Higher education of Assam. Among these, total enrolment of 596119 in UG courses, 1564 in PG Diploma courses, 23614 in Diploma courses, 1790 in Certificate courses, 4549 in Integrated courses, 65429 in PG courses, 464 in M.Phil., and 4940 in PhD. As of 24th March 2020, as a consequence of the nationwide lockdown, all universities, colleges and other educational institutions were closed in Assam. This generally indicates that in higher education, almost 9.85% of the total number of students of Assam are affected. They either have had their studies ended or significantly disrupted due to COVID-19. The Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) in the University & Colleges (both Distant and Regular mode) of Assam is 37 which is higher than the national average of PTR (33). This certainly means that for 37 students, there is 1 teacher to teach them.

To cope up with the crisis of closure of educational institutions indefinitely, the Government of India and the Govt. of Assam have come up with rapid response plans. The immediate response to the crisis was the shifting of physical learning into a distance learning in a bid to save the career of students and that the academic year is not lost. Various e-platforms have been adopted for the delivery and acquirement of teachings such as Google classroom, Zoom app, YouTube, UGC MOOC platforms and lot more. Other forms of distance learning are also introduced from email delivery/return of assignments to utilizing mail, TV, radio, phones and mobile applications where broadband is limited. However, considering the fact that the students' population in higher studies in Assam are largely heterogeneous with respect to the region, incomes and other socio-economic parameters, the accessibility to these e-platforms have been limited. As a result, it is likely to produce drop-outs in the next semester examinations. Private higher education may see a decline in the enrolment in the subsequent academic year. Moreover, the initiation of the e-learning platforms has posed various other unavoidable problems on the teaching dimension. There are also instances that several research labs in the Universities and colleges are being closed and PG projects for partial fulfilment of the respective degrees are in halt. These have pushed the concerned research scholars and the students in grave uncertainty. The experimentation at a scale of adoption of online education triggered by the pandemic may speed up the learning process of universities and provide them with perspective to enrich campus-based programs with online elements in a way that aligns with demands from new generations of students. To be more precise, the output of the response plans introduced will determine its efficacy in due course of time. 

Considering the nationwide lockdown and restrictions posed to the higher education institutions of Assam, these institutions have to face a lot more short and the long term challenges to confront. Some relevant and immediate challenges are outlined below.

• Providing the e-learning process to the marginalised section and the physically challenged students.

• Loss of research, including research collaborations across institutions, and disciplines.

• Loss of higher education’s contributions to the regional civic communities and culture, including the provision of continuing education, community meeting spaces, centres for performance and visual arts, etc.

• Possibility of lowering the funding in Higher Educational Institutions.

• Using advanced technology in the teaching and learning process.Alternate plans for universities to conduct the upcoming end-semester examination and the entrance examinations for the next academic batch if the situation does not return to normalcy.

• Graduate unemployment levels will likely to increase because of economic contraction and labour market distrust.

• Higher PTR at the University and College level.

In respect to the crisis, some of the important actions need to be taken for short term or long term adaptation to the current changing environment for the Higher Education of Assam are outlined below.

• Preparation of the alternate action plan of conducting the end-semester examination like clubbing the existing and the upcoming semesters into a one.

• Surveying students on their capacity to engage in remote learning to understand how realistic it for students to adapt to instructors’ plans for delivery and to work with instructors to adapt according to student capacity to partake in distance learning.

• Reaching out to the suitable private sector entities or software firms for developing software for conducting the upcoming entrance examinations online so that students can appear from home. In doing so, ensure that it is inclusive and optimised. All the Universities in Assam may come into a common platform of dealing with this.  

• Reducing the expenditure on miscellaneous and increase the funding on higher education.

• Reducing the PTR by recruiting more teachers so that the feasibility of teaching during this crisis is increased.

• While most faculty members are active online in Assam, many have not taught in online mode before this crisis. On the medium-term, academic staff need digital skills training.

It is imperative that all the stakeholders associated with the Higher Education of Assam who are in the race against the pandemic, will have to focus their efforts on the vulnerable section of students, and ensure that the teaching and learning solutions, technological arrangements, research activities, faculty development, optimised investment and funding systems, are paced up and taking these opportunities, we can identify the weaknesses in the infrastructure to take proactive steps to battle with any kind of impending diseases without devastating our entities. But if we ignore this crisis, then it will prove to be the most catastrophic event in the history of the globe. Let’s save our Higher Education of Assam and of the Nation, and of our globe. In a nutshell, let’s save our globe, our humanity and our civilizations. As Charles Albert Tindley rightly composed: We shall overcome, we shall overcome, We shall overcome someday; Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, We shall overcome someday…

Note: Views expressed here are entirely personal.

Thanks for reading. :)