While schools across the country are yet to take a call on when to resume classes, the major worry for parents raising children aged between five and 19 seems to be the lack of physical activity in them.
A survey conducted by Lifology, a career guidance platform, involving over 38,000 parents across 14 states in India has come out with interesting insights about the major worries of parents raising children across age groups and the degree of their reliance on e-learning platforms to bridge the gap over loss of school-time. “The survey was done with the objective of discovering the attitudes of parents in a COVID-19 affected world,” the report stated, adding that the aim was to find out what concerns the parents have around their children’s education which has now been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The overall conclusion of the survey is that the parents of older kids, aged between 16-19 years, feel the pinch of the COVID-19 related lockdown more than the parents of younger children. It also mentions that e-learning platforms reassure parents in the absence of proper school-time for their children.
On surveying over 38,000 parents in India, 27% of the parents have said that their children are not getting their daily dose of physical activity in the form of playing, running around etc. during the lockdown. The second major worry that parents share is the lack of interesting activities to keep their children occupied during the lockdown period.
Only 14% of the parents stated that they were worried about the suspension of classes in schools and lack of tuition.
Of those who had mentioned that they worry over lack of physical activity of their children, 29% of the parents have stated that they rely on e-learning platforms to make up for the time lost due to closed schools.
The survey also observed a shift in the dependence on e-learning apps between age groups. While the parents raising children aged between 11 and 15 years focus on platforms that help in conceptual learning like Byjus, parents of older children rely on apps that help them prepare for university entrance exams. These children also use extra-skilling platforms like Udemy (23% of the parents with children aged between 16 and 19 rely on this app), more than Khan Academy and Byjus.
Among the parents raising children aged between 16-19 years who rely on e-learning platforms, 46% seek to know what career suits their children and 42% of the parents are willing to hire a coach to help their children choose an appropriate career option.
Dr Marilyn Maze, who is part of the research team that undertook the survey, states, “Along with basic infrastructure, India and all developing nations should focus on long terms effects of the COVID crisis in the education field. Nature of education, time spent online, digital learning are all going to have a paradigm shift.”