IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SECONDARY/HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR: A CASE STUDY OF SAMBA DISTRICT

Covid-19 has disrupted the education of millions of students across the world; the situation in India being no different. Students are likely to be worst hit by closure of the schools since they have lack of learning opportunities at home. The school closure may lead to loss of learning in short run but if extended for a longer period may lead to loss of human resource development. Keeping the importance of the school education in view, this paper tries to analyse the impact of Covid-19 on the school education in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir. Primary data was collected with the help of Google forms circulated among a sample of 300 school students and use of simple percentage method was made to interpret the results. It was observed from the study that only a small proportion of the students could complete their syllabus in lockdown. They faced variety of problems like poor connectivity, lack of devices to access online classes, anxiety, internet problem etc. As such it is suggested that the government must take efforts to normalise e-learning for both students and teachers. Government launched online platforms like SWAYAM, SARAL DSEJ etc if utilized effectively can give impetus to virtual learning.