Considering Sending your Kids for Offline Classes?

The past year was very troubling to people belonging to various walks of life. As the adults sat at home, trying to figure out the work and the hours that they put into the work-from-home situation, children had their own issues to tackle with. As the pandemic made every single thing shift online, the educational sector was hit hard by the Internet wave.

As the lockdown started to extend from days to weeks to months, students could not remain deprived of education for so long. So before it was too long, the educational institutions decided to shift the entire teaching-learning process online. Each kid had to attend these classes from home, and when the time came, even exams had to be conducted from home. And thus, homeschooling somehow became the new norm.

However, as people here are more acquainted with the traditional form of learning, schools gradually started to reopen for the children. As the pandemic had not died down completely, this reopening of schools happened in phases, starting with the senior-most classes. It was decided that online classes alone could not help the kids that were preparing to sit for their boards this year. Hence, the government called for the reopening of classes X and XII at the foremost so that the teachers could physically be able to guide these children in preparing for their boards. There might have been some disadvantages of online classes that made kids shift to offline classes once again.

But why are offline classes given greater importance than online learning?

Surely there’s some difference between online and offline classes. Here is a list of the pros that can help you be the judge and find an answer to the question above. These points can help you to even figure out the disadvantages of online classes.

·         Traditional Acquaintance: As mentioned above, offline learning is the traditional system of learning in India. We are used to attending classes physically. We are used to being in our teachers’ physical presence to learn concepts or even get doubts cleared. It has become a sort of routine that is difficult to get out of. Thus, naturally, kids tend to concentrate better in offline classes.

·         Increased Interaction: Offline classes involve a face to face interaction among students and teachers. This assures the students that the teacher is present alongside them to help them with queries and confusions. The increased interaction helps the entire class get their doubts cleared and increases communicational and social skills in the students.

·         Individualized Attention: The face-to-face interaction offered by offline classes helps the teachers to focus on all the students, allowing each of them their attention. The daily interaction among the students and the teachers also helps increase the bond between them, thus facilitating the teachers to be aware of their students’ strongest and weakest subjects.

·         The Right Atmosphere: Being present and studying in a class alongside a lot of other kids that are of the same age as you and are learning the same thing, helps boost the competitiveness in learning. This competitiveness provides an environment of learning and helps students to evolve. Trying to be better than the peers, while also maintaining healthy competition can be great for kids.

All these points give offline classes a greater hand over online learning.

But, remember that each coin has two sides. So, it’s pretty obvious that offline classes have some drawbacks that make parents think twice before they decide on sending their kids for offline lessons. Here are some of the cons of offline classes that might prove online learning to be the better option of the two.

·         The Pandemic Situation: The government had earlier suspended all classes as the pandemic was at large all over the world and the country. However, towards the end of last year, things seemed to be under control and schools gradually reopened. But now, the pandemic seems to be picking up pace. The numbers of affected people are rising day by day and offline classes are not at all a good idea amongst this chaos.

·         Access to Learning: In offline learning, a student is required to travel to school each day, at a fixed timing, to be able to attend classes. The schedule isn’t flexible enough to favor students who might have gotten late due to traffic problems or other issues of importance. They just end up missing classes due to no fault of theirs and can’t hold anyone accountable for the same.

·         Involvement of Expenses: While getting a child admitted to a school, there are a lot of expenses that a parent has to cover. Starting from the admission fee and tuition fee, they even have to pay for stuff like access to electricity, water, digital learning tools, and whatnot. The fees put in would be quite less when parents sign their kid up for online learning as that requires them to pay only for the learning part.

·         Dependency on Teachers: Offline classes make the students entirely dependent on their teachers. Sometimes, students don’t even take the trouble of going through the lesson as the teacher is sure to take the trouble of explaining it to them and even provide them with necessary notes. This kills the creativity in students, making them completely dependent on their teachers for all their academic needs.

Well, offline classes are not the best option after all. But neither are online classes, for a fact. Every other thing, or concept, has its pros and cons. It is upon us to consider all the pointers and decide which suits us the best.

So, best of luck making that decision for your kid!