Lockdown has impacted a student's Career

 

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global lockdown of all educational institutions. More than 91 percent of the world’s students are out of school, due to school closures in at least 188 countries. It has affected all the sectors and has led to an unusual interruption in a student’s learning; disruptions in internal assessments; and the cancellation of public assessments for qualifications or their replacement by an inferior alternative. It has caused not only a massive shock to parent’s productivity but also to children’s social life and learning. Teaching is moving online, on an untested and unprecedented scale. Student assessments are also moving online, with a lot of trial and error and uncertainty for everyone. Many assessments have been simply canceled. Practical classes are not running. Importantly, these interruptions will not just be a short-term issue, but can also have long-term consequences for the affected cohorts and are likely to increase inequality.

ASSESSMENTS IN INSTITUTIONS

The closure of schools and colleges not only interrupts the teaching for students around the world; the closure also coincides with a key assessment period and many exams have been postponed or canceled.

Internal assessments give information about the child’s progress for families and the teachers but it has been uncertainly canceled these days. The loss of this information delays the recognition of both high potential and learning difficulties and can have harmful long-term consequences for the child. Some exams have also been canceled leading to major destruction of a student’s career. The exams which are being conducted in schools, universities, and institutes can be considered blind. Simply the teachers are also evaluating based on student’s previous tests. For example, if girls usually perform better in a subject, an unblind evaluation of a boy’s performance is likely to be downward biased. Because such assessments are used as a key qualification to enter higher education, the move to unblind subjective assessments can have potential long-term consequences for the equality of opportunity.

PROBLEMS TO THE GRADUATES

The career of this year’s university graduates may be severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have experienced major teaching interruptions in the final part of their studies, they are experiencing major interruptions in their assessments, and finally, they are likely to graduate at the beginning of a major global recession. You are a college student on the brink of graduation. All you have to do is give your final exams, throw your graduation caps in the air, land placement and enter a whole new stage of life. Except you didn’t hand your last paper over. You didn’t throw the black trapezium-shaped cap along with your friends. And instead of discussing salary packages with companies, you were forced to stay where you were as the whole world came to a lockdown-in standstill. Shreds of evidence suggest that poor market conditions at labor market entry cause workers to accept lower-paid jobs and that this has permanent effects on the careers of some.

 

 THE SOLUTION

The global lockdown of educational institutions is going to cause a major interruption in students’ learning; disruption in internal assessments; and the cancellation of public assessments for qualifications or their replacement by inferior alternatives.

Schools need resources to rebuild the loss in learning, once they open again. How these resources are used, and how to target the children who were especially hard hit, is an open question. Given the evidence of the importance of assessments for learning, schools should also consider postponing rather than skipping internal assessments. For new graduates, policies should support their entry into the labor market to avoid longer unemployment periods.

However, EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING and the dark clouds hanging above right now are no exception. students may not be able to work in the true sense of the world, but as the wise man said,” THE BEST IDEAS SURFACE IN TIMES OF PRESSURE.” It’s totally in the hands of students to give the desired shape to their career. They can follow various online platforms to learn new and innovative skills which are going to be of utmost importance in the coming future. Many such online platforms have released courses free of cost for which the students had to pay a handsome amount in the normal situation.

 So, they must utilize this time and convert this pandemic into opportunity.