The education industry is going through one of its biggest changes ever as schools continues to keep us home; we see that experiences have “moved the premises”. Like, patients are opting for telemedicine due to fear of contaminated hospital spaces, work is mostly conducted remotely from home, shopping is increasingly online and school campuses have turned virtual.

In just a few months, schools had to go digital abruptly. As students are remote, schools are forced to offer students with digital learning option. And this has led many educationists to declare digital learning as the true force for future learning. But even so, there remain doubts as to what the future landscape for learning will look like once we return to normal.

Parents are considering digital learning as an alternative to classroom learning due to the fear of virus. Therefore, the question now is: To what extent will the parents want their children to be home-schooled when the world returns to a changed normal. While this has been a knee-jerk reaction to the present crisis, digital-only learning will not be a viable option due to the socializing and teacher-moderated aspect of classroom learning. Survey has shown 35% of the parents think home schooling is a plausible option for their child. Parents biggest concern is schools becoming the super spreaders of the virus and hence they can’t risk their kids health with the overwhelmed school staff.

Data shows that one effect of the lockdown at home has been declining mental health among children, especially in the young age group. Social interaction has been seen as a great solution for children to regain health normalcy.

Research has shown that it only takes 60 days for humans to form new habits, and students and parents have seen the convenience of online study for more than 4 months now. While initial fear of virus was what kept students away from schools, convenience may encourage them to continue from home. Second wave of virus will likely push the school administrators and parents alike to continue the lockdown for at least few more months.

Despite the convenience, many district schools are preparing to open the school with a hybrid model – a blended form of digital and classroom learning. There are questions like, would a student who hasn’t felt the heat at a science lab experiment be able to encode the experience as permanent? So there’s a clarion call from many educators for a blended program when students come back to the schools.

When schools open back, there is definitely going to be a two-dimension approach to teaching – Digital and classroom. The experience that a student gains from personal mingling with fellow students and interactive classroom sessions cannot be replaced. Sooner or later, whether we like it or not, schools have to reopen to get the academic year going. Schools must prepare to welcome back staff and students by adhering to all the guidelines laid out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Daaqil has worked closely with schools to understand their concerns about re-opening the schools and has operationalized the digital safety measures including contactless check-in, checkout, drop-off and pick-up of students. This will enable schools to be compliant ready with the guidelines and keep track of student’s movement, in and out of the schools, while, all the way keeping the students and staff through contactless process. Schools with student strength of 100 – 1000 can offer a touch-less experience while allaying fears from parents for the safety of their children. Daaqil App lets you onboard a school and subsequently students seamlessly in minutes.

Just as schools have adopted virtual teaching in favor of classroom training due to fear of virus, today we are beginning to see a remarkable shift in education. However, classroom training and extra curricular activities will always remain necessary, but schools might be a little less full when we return to normal.