BLENDED LEARNING DURING PANDEMIC IN INDIA: STAKEHOLDERS’ PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

During the year 2020, educational institutions in many countries had to close down in response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and switch over to online education. During this critical period, the Government of India has come up with National Educational Policy 2020 which addresses critical & innovative thinking along with encouraging Blended mode of learning as one of the major building blocks to make India the global powerhouse of education. Since blended learning was accepted as a mode of learning transaction by educational institutions all over the world during Pandemic, there is an urgent need to examine the readiness and willingness on part of stakeholders in implementing this technology aided blended learning. This paper is an attempt to explore the views of parents, teachers and teacher educators of blended education in the NCR region, gathered through online surveys in 2021-22 during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period. This study finds that acclimatization happened very quickly but many teachers voiced their concerns about the pressure that they had to undergo due to difficulty caused by unfamiliarity with how to deliver high quality teaching and learning due to sudden switch over from classroom-based learning to blended learning. Although online education was well received by parents, many of them described having difficulties with balancing responsibilities, accessibility, financial crunch as well as technological challenges. Parents contributed towards their wards’ learning by providing necessary infrastructure and technology and tried to maintain a positive attitude towards learning by looking into the mental well-being of the students.