Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Physics Teaching in India

TL;DR

This paper examines the challenges faced by physics education in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting digital divides, resource disparities, and gender impacts, and discusses responses to these issues.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of the digital and resource challenges in Indian physics education during COVID-19 and describes initiatives to mitigate these problems.

Findings

Significant digital divide affected access to online education.

Resource disparities impacted laboratory-based physics teaching.

Women students faced increased challenges due to limited access to safe learning spaces.

Abstract

When academic institutions in India closed abruptly in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, formal education moved online. This transition had a very uneven impact given the significant digital divide between rural and urban India and the unequal distribution of digital resources in different institutions. Access to resources varied substantially by individual, based on socioeconomic factors as well as gender. Institutional support to the academic community during this critical period was largely inadequate, which has had serious consequences on the teaching of physics and other subjects that require laboratory instruction. Educational institutions also provide safe and enabling learning spaces for women students; reduced access to such facilities undermined the work- and study-related dynamics for women because of the scarcity of resources such as devices, data, and time. This paper reports on efforts made towards understanding such challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic and describes steps that were taken to address them.