Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Education and Psycho-Social Behavior among School Students: A Comparative Study between Two Adjacent Blocks in North 24 Pargana District of West Bengal, India

Abstract

A country is developed only when its citizens are educated. The role of education in the development of a nation can never be denied. Institutional education is imperative as it helps the child to become a good citizen through holistic development. During the last three years, due to emergence of Covid-19 and lockdown as its preventive measure, formal education was not in continuation for that time period. The objective of the paper is to compare the impact of school closure during lockdown on education and psycho-social behaviour among school students of two adjacent blocks of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. Hence, the comparative parameters are school closure-related impacts faced by students during the pandemic situation. Cross-sectional data were collected from 80 no of children enrolled in government schools and their parents randomly. The data has been analyzed to evaluate the impact of school closures on learners. The result revealed that an alternative option came as a learning medium that is the online mode of education. These online classes required gadgets like mobile phone, laptop and proper internet connection. The majority of the students' parents are daily wage earners. During the lockdown, they got unemployed. So many of them couldn’t afford a new smartphone and recharge amount for internet packages. The majority of students from rural areas were unable to do online classes due to economic constraints and inaccessibility of internet and many schools could not arrange online classes due to higher poverty rate of the location and lack of infrastructure. It caused a significant impact on the learners' education by creating a huge difference between the learners of the same age. Most of the students of both blocks lost their sincerity towards education. Behavioural changes occurred among students during this school closure. Most of the parents complained that during online classes their wards got addicted to online games and other unnecessary online activities. They lost their concentration in studies, got irritable by nature, enjoy loneliness, talk less etc. The changes among learners of Barrakpore II were greater than the learners of Barasat I. It can be recommended from this study that if there will any situation arrives to shut down the schools again or to development of a blended mode of education, a related educational policy, infrastructure with affordable and accessible measures should be considered to continue the education system for every section of students.