Benefits of Online Learning: Pre-Primary Children

The new normal for the children - online or virtual learning.

- Gayatri Ramanan

As the second wave of the Corona pandemic ebbs away in India, a lot is being written and spoken about the effect of Covid lockdown on school-going children. The discussion has been both on the psychological and academic aspects.

Unfortunately, the concerns of parents and teachers about the learning gap in the pre-primary age group is not being paid the required attention and has been relegated to the sidelines.

Missed Aspects of Learning

Most of the nursery and Montessori schools, especially in the urban areas school have switched to the online mode of teaching. On a regular bases, tinytots are coerced to sing, dance, answer questions, and display all social niceties in front of a digital screen. But the benefit of this form of teaching and learning is really questionable and especially with reference to this age group.

For example, ‘What is a market?’, a simple question of a three-year-old girl totally surprised her parents. Sans a few hurried visits to sanitized malls, the child have never visited a full-fledged market filled with various sights, sounds and smells. Though the child reads and listens to stories about markets, wild animals, oceans and mountains; there will always be a difference in just listening and learning by actually immersing oneself in such experiences which is aptly called ‘social learning.’