Educational industry challenges during COVID-19 and the role of ICT

Abstract

The inevitable dependency on Information and communication technology (ICT) in the world is becoming intensive day by day in the knowledge economy and vaulted to a new high during COVID-19 pandemic.The first positive case identified in Kerala on 30th January 2020 and all educational institutions are forced to close which is the period of final exams. In school level, some of the final examinations are in progress and some of them are preparing to start and in case of Higher education, March is the period examinations begin, unfortunately, the education industry is not ready to manage the sudden inevitable challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic.The advantage of having availability and accessibility of e-learning resources to some students are high and for some, it is almost zero.Parents are not ready for the sudden requirement in their ward e-learning resources to facilitate the learning process. The uncertainty in reopening of educational institutions brings chaos in moving forward with the process of educational systems, where different critical dimensions are brought in for analysis and the level of importance and direction vary enormously and the stakeholders are in fix due to intensity of stake on the future generation.