Is E-Learning for Primary School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic a Boon or Bane?

Abstract

In order to connect with the students during the lockdown and shutdown owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary education system of India has adopted virtual platforms. As such, the stakeholders of the primary education system in India were not technology savvy enough to adopt virtual platforms for teaching and learning. It is pertinent to unfold the journey of the important stakeholders of primary education (i.e., teachers, students, and parents in the process of using virtual platforms during current pandemic). Thus, the objective of this paper is to establish on the basis of personal interviews among 50 parents of primary school students and 30 primary school teachers whether teaching and learning in virtual platforms happened to be a boon or bane in primary education in India. It is found that mandating e-learning for the teachers and students has more cons for all the stakeholders of the primary education.