College Reopening
The COVID-19 pandemic hit right during admissions season, interrupting both college entrance exams and application deadlines, and forcing many students and families to rethink their college plans. Several colleges have been reopening and allowing students to attend in-person classes following a decline in Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, some universities are either accepting openings or are awaiting clear guidelines from the government. Because of this some students seemed really happy but some witnessed sorrow.
We know that every situation has its 2 outcomes, so as this situation. College reopening has both it’s advantages and disadvantages. I will be sharing my experience in the form of pros and cons regarding this situation. Let us have a look on its advantages first.
Advantages
• Research shows that the best learning occurs with students physically present in the classroom. Also the understanding power of students increases in offline mode.
And even many students felt that. Online classes were just just about eating and sleeping. We never took it seriously, which resulted in inducing zero knowledge among us. The results now can be shown in offline classes. Teachers are forced to repeat the whole syllabus for the sake of students understanding.
• Without online access and learning support, low-income students may fall behind. Their ability to perform good in class increases as they are now able to understand the topics. Also they will get to interact with students physically which will increase their confidence.
• Campuses can begin the process of building herd immunity. With reopening of colleges, many works have been restarted. Students are now searching for Pgs , cafes and markets to cater their needs in college. With this all the vendor owners are happy because they have started earning profits again.
• With college reopening in India – by following safety & precautions as per the covid protocol, students will develop a good habit of cleanliness and personal hygiene that will prevent them from falling ill and protect them from infectious diseases such as COVID-19, colds, and flu. Following covid protocol will also help in preventing the spread of germs and infectious diseases to other people.
Challenges
These were some pros , which our commonly known . Now it’s turn for the cons that is the disadvantages.
• Online education is constantly improving and will be much better in the fall than it was this spring. It is gathering much more attention nowadays.
• Students are unlikely to obey behavior pledges for social distancing. They remove masks and wander here and there. Just to click selfies and photos they don’t obey the guidelines of covid 19. It can result in fatal diseases not only to one student, bht can attack group of students.
• Nontraditional students, older faculty and staff, immunocompromised individuals, and certain racial groups are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. Their immune system is not like students. They are more pron to catch deadly diseases.
• Another stay at-home order would force students to pay to return home. This will waste and cost their time and money respectively. Students are paying high rents of their living, which are not affordable during these times of pandemic knowing that many have losts their jobs and means of earning.
• The last and the main reason which is offline exams. Students have fear of offline exams and that is valid too. They have built the habit of giving online exams at home. Afterall we all are having online classes since we entered our college and we are attending them since our very first day. College reopening notice was a very immediate action taken by authorities. We all panicked because there was no specific planning regarding college. As soon as we heard of offline exams we shocked and actually were in dilemma that how can college authorities can change their decision in just few days . We are not mentally prepared right now and if we are supposed to give offline exam then it will result in huge loss of students. So this is the major con of college reopening as everyone knows that how much our online classes were effective.
Simarpreet (Student at DU)
