THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC : OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

Life is not a bed of roses. It is full of struggles and challenges. But, it's these struggles which create Champions. Challenges don't mean the end of life, they just mean new ventures opening doors to innumerable opportunities. Endemics or pandemics, they may create instabilities for some time, some lives may be lost, but they can't kill the human instinct and stamina to progress. We just need to have courage and patience to deal with such situations. We need to be antifragile,  we need to reinvent ourselves. 

REINVENT YOURSELF

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." -- George Bernard Shaw

Yes, being antifragile is the need of the time and the key to survival. We must make some strategy as how to be antifragile. Following some strategic steps, we may become a better version of ourselves and prosper even in odd situations. It will help us overcome any type of situations or circumstances successfully and without being harmed. We may take the example of COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown due to it. Those who were vulnerable and fragile, got losses in business and jobs as their business was shut down and the job was lost due to Lockdown. But those who were antifragile,  cashed the situation by starting Online Business according to the needs and time. New Start-ups , in teaching and medical fields, earned in millions. Thus, the fragile were at losses,  and the antifragile opened immense opportunities and earned billions. 

COVID - 19 CHANGED THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

During the pandemic, the education sector was the most affected one. We, the educators and teachers had no idea about this unexpected and unimaginable happening. But, when this occurred, we took the command like Frontline Warriors. Although we had no prior experience,  we prepared ourselves, rather say reinvented ourselves, to face the situation and win over it. COVID-19 and LOCKDOWN were all new to us. But, when the Lockdown was imposed, finally,  on 22nd March 2020, we swore to save education system, the education of our children, our future, the future of our country. Without any delay, we switched over to the Online mode of teaching, with whatever facilities we had. Initially, through WhatsApp, Telegram, email and then Cloud Meeting, Microsoft team many others. In the beginning, we had some glitches, but gradually things improved and we became technically sound. Online teaching- learning was a challenge. It was just like a  one-way-traffic causing learning hazards. It lost student-faculty contact, cooperation among students, active learning, prompt feedback, time-based task, high expectations, respects to diverse talents and ways of learning. But, it improved a bit with time. With the help of technology, it became easier to teach, but nothing can take the place of Offline mode of teaching-learning system. 

Offline classes have a lot of benefits over the Online ones. Active learning is possible only in the classrooms. The offline mode of study enables direct interaction between the teachers and students. It provides a healthy competitive environment to the students. It facilitates good classroom communication that helps in understanding the concepts easily. Teachers can pay equal attention to every student in the class. Extra-curricular activities in offline mode help in the overall development of students. Teachers can easily judge the performance of every student in the classroom. Doubts and questions can be cleared easily in the offline mode of studies.Thus, Offline mode of study is more beneficial and productive as compared to any other mode of study. 

Yet, whatever the situation was, we handled it successfully and made us technically more improved. Infact,  we had a lot of opportunities to learn new things. It has, really, opened more promising doors to progress. We have become hi-techs, techno - friendly.