Online learning – Effective Mode for Bridging Education and Skill Gap

Pramod Kumar Mishra

India is resourceful with its’ second largest population in the world. It is further more impressive that average age of its human resource is 29 years – about 8 years less than China and 19 years less than Japan. Why I have compared with China and Japan? It is because of obvious reasons. While first is known for quantity of product at customer’s price and other is known for quality or perfection.

Population is resourceful when adequate skill set is acquiring to contribute in the growth of the society. Data indicates that our literacy rate is about 75%. Out of which about 15% is 10th pass. So, our 11% population or 15 Crore population is 10th pass.  Further, about 4% or about 5 Crore of population is graduate and above.

Since skill has high correlation with education, therefore, higher the education, higher the skill level. So, above data clearly indicates that there is big gap and hence urgent need for massive work on enhancing the education and skill level.

Now, there are different modes of imparting education to the population. One way is conventional class room based teaching which has got many limitations to teach masses. Teachers are always in scarcity – even institutions of repute are running on much lesser than the sanctioned strength.

Next important aspect is quality of teachers it is posing the reall challenge! Ideally, best of best lot should be deployed as teachers, but practically it is not the case.

In above discussion, two things have clearly come out – quantum of education gap and scarcity of qualified teaching professionals to fill the gap.

Another important aspect, rather most important aspect is that willingness of the student. People are generally focused on day-to-day livelihood and for conventional kind of teaching. In the process they have to compromise on the activities which they do for their livelihood. So, what finally boils down to bridge the massive gap is to bring in flexibility in acquiring education and skills. Flexibility of time, flexibility of courses they wish to choose, flexibility of continuity in education, flexibility of choosing college, teacher, flexibility of speed – fast track or conventional, flexibility of choosing multiple courses at a time – all this at affordable price. Online education brings has potential to cater to all these requirements.

What is online education? It is an internet based teaching-learning platform that brings teachers and students together without being present in the conventional classrooms. Not only that, online education is an excellent medium for professionals and experts to pass on their skills, aptitudes, and knowledge in an impactful way to the students without any boundaries.

Online education enables the teacher and the student to set their own learning pace, and there’s the added flexibility of setting a schedule that fits everyone’s schedule. As a result, using an online educational platform allows for a better balance of work and studies, so there is no need to give anything up. Studying online teaches us vital time management skills, which makes finding a good work-study balance easier. Having a common agenda between the student and teacher also lead to accept new responsibilities and have more autonomy. Online education is also flexible for each student’s individual requirements and level of ability.

Online education offers a wide selection of programs - there are infinite skills and subjects to teach and learn. A growing number of universities and higher education schools are offering online versions of their programs for various levels and disciplines. From primary education to quantum physics, handwriting improvement session to Artificial Intelligence, there are options for every student.

Also, online learning enables students to study and teacher to teach from anywhere in the world. This means there is no need to commute from one place to another, or follow a rigid schedule. On top of that, it saves time and money, which can be spent on other priorities. Lastly, it is more cost-effective than traditional education. Unlike in-person education methods, online education tends to be more affordable. Recently, we have enrolled our two kids for handwriting skills from one of the best teacher which would not have been possible physically and at such a meager cost.