The global spread of COVID-19 led to school closures and lockdowns around the world. Education has changed in almost all countries (Meng et al., 2020). Universities have adopted new teaching and learning methods, and teachers have begun teaching online since the COVID-19 pandemic (Rahim and Chandran, 2021). Traditional classrooms gave way to virtual ones, and remote education became more popular. Furthermore, the instructors have delivered their lectures via other platforms such as Google Classroom, Zoom, WebEx, and WhatsApp (Danish, 2020).The experience with online teaching learning so far has illustrated how we can manage our educational institutions during such difficult situations. Although the online mode of teaching-learning does not require the teacher's physical presence, it cannot be a substitute for the immediacy of personal contact between instructor and learner. Also,meaningful learning is not feasible if students and teachers are not properly equipped and trained to manage remote learning devices and applications. While, on the one hand, the use of digital capital is inevitable for this mode, its use and benefits are determined by factors like finance to buy it, training and knowledge to use it, and infrastructure to support it, which cannot be presumed to be the same for both the genders across all the income groups. Also, online learning could exacerbate the problems of school withdrawal and absenteeism (D’Souza, 2020). So, before accepting this as a formal mode of learning or integrating it with the formal mode of learning, its assessment on various dimensions is imperative. A summary of some of the studies in this regard follows:
According to the studies (Berga et al., 2021; Thai et al., 2020; Widodo et al., 2020), online learning does not provide the same benefits as in-person learning. Abbasi et al., 2020 found that most students preferred face-to-face learning over online instruction. Their study found that 86% of respondents believed that online education does not significantly affect students' learning. It was also revealed that online learning did not have the desired engaging impact because of limitations preventing the practical aspects of teaching from being included. As revealed by Almaiah et al., 2020; Almanthari et al., 2020; Alqahtani &Rajkhan, 2020; Dhawan, 2020;Mukhatar et al., 2020; Snoussi, 2019; difficulties with implementing online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were mainly due to insufficient resources, problems with integrity, policy issues, lack of self-discipline of students, and technical issues.
A study by Shenoy et al. (2020) found that nearly all Indian higher education institutions had started virtual classes and found that the experience was positive, but the lack of integration in online learning adversely affected students' learning. University students were found to favour e-learning during the pandemic as it provided them with greater freedom in communicating with teachers and interacting with their study material in their comfort, anywhere, and at any time (Khan et al., 2020). Teachers' relationships with students have changed due to the online environment, as teachers cannot provide extra attention and care to physically exhausted and needy students. Students thought online courses were insufficient as well. The workload for teachers in online teaching has increased as a result of creating videos, PowerPoint presentations, and e-notes for students. The environment of an online classroom left teachers and students physically tired and without a sense of comfort (Hindocha, 2020). University students from remote villages often encounter difficulties attending online lectures due to poor internet connection and slow speeds (Shrestha et al., 2022). Using screens and mobile devices for long periods can also be stressful for students (Gupta et al., 2022). A major disadvantage of online lectures is removing students from classroom discussions and disconnecting them from the university library (Farooqui, 2020). According to Kara et al. (2019), students' difficulties during online instruction depend on various factors, including their gender, age, knowledge, skills, and context. Khan & Khan (2019) stressed the importance of providing students and teachers with proper technical training and creating active interactions between instructors and students to improve online education.
Iqbal et al., 2022, in their study found substantial dissatisfaction among the study population regarding the online education provided to them during the COVID pandemic. In addition to concerns about the lack of institutional support, participants also expressed concern over the quality of online instruction. According to Byrnes et al., 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected students' learning in higher education due to its anemic impact on society. Furthermore, this study revealed that students were not attending classes for months, and learning had been suspended. Onyema et al., 2020 found that school closures had a negative impact on student's motivation and engagement in the classroom. This, in turn, could reduce educational quality. The study also reveals that school closures in countries with limited resources have made life difficult for students and teachers alike. Further, education technology tools are not available to students and teachers in developing countries. Additionally, Winters and Patel, 2021 believe that the COVID-19 outbreak has adversely affected students' education around the globe, and universities should reorganize their teaching and learning policies to ensure that students receive the best education.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the students were stressed, which adversely affected their learning (Day et al., 2021). Syllabi contents have been reduced in many courses, and students' learning has not been sufficient due to shortened lectures or less training time than scheduled. There are several studies (Goldsteinal et al., 2020; Hamilton et al., 2020; Wyse et al., 2020) that showed that students could not access their instructors' teaching materials. There was a low level of engagement among students, as they did not even log in to the online learning system.Using content analysis, Muthuprasad et al., 2021, in their study on agriculture students' perception of online education, found that 60% of respondents revealed thatonline learning was less effective than face-to-face instruction. However, flexibility and convenience make it a viable option during such situations.
Joshi et al., 2020 used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to determine how university teachers manage the challenges and barriers they face in teaching and assessing online courses. According to this study, there are four categories of barriers teachers encounter during online teaching and assessment: 1. home environment barrier, which includes lack of basic facilities, interruptions from family during teaching, insufficient budget for purchasing advanced technologies; 2. institutional support barriers, including a lack of training, unclear directions, and inadequate budgets; 3. technical difficulties, such as inadequate infrastructure, insufficient information about online teaching platforms, and security issues about online teaching; and 4. personal barriers within teachers such as negative attitude, inability to motivate students, and incomplete technical knowledge.In addition to insufficient infrastructure facilities and a lack of emotional attachment with students, online classes can be challenging for teachers, especially for practical subjects (Kulal & Nayak, 2020).
2.2. Research Gap
The onset of COVID-19 has revived the interest of researchers in online education as an alternative mode of teaching-learning resulting in ample addition to the literature in this area. A few of these studies particularly focus on eliciting students' perceptions of online education who experienced it for the first time. In addition to identifying potential benefits and major bottlenecks in online learning, many papers have also compared it with the traditional mode of learning on various dimensions. Despite frequent shutdowns during the past many years in Kashmir because of non-pandemic reasons, the use of the online mode of learning was never tested. The perception and preferences of Kashmiri students have rarely been studied in the literature. Considering the importance of this model in regions like Kashmir, where at times, for different reasons, a good number of teaching-learning days are lost, the existing literature needs to be enriched with the perception of stakeholders about this mode of learning. The Covid 19 has provided an opportunity in this context as we now have the stakeholders who have experienced this model and can better assess the benefits and difficulties associated with this alternative mode. The present study, besides filling this gap in the existing literature, will also be unique in at least two ways. First, unlike earlier studies to elicit students' perceptions towards online learning using the Likert scale, we assessed the degree of consensus for different statements using Tastle and Wierman (2007) measure before ranking them for drawing valid conclusions. Second, besides identifying the major problems and bottlenecks, we have ranked them, and for the robustness of ranking, we used both ‘Friedman’ and ‘Garrett and Woodworth’ ranking methods. Third, in the case of female respondents, we have identified and ranked major domestic chores activities that impeded their online learning. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no such study has been conducted in the field of school education in Kashmir.
2.3. Objectives
By conceptualizing the problem exclusively with regard to online education in school education, we attempt to fill the existing research gap with our study by aiming at the following objectives.
-
To analyze the secondary school students’ perceptions towards online education during the COVID-19 period.
-
To record and rank the major benefits and constraints of online mode of learning from the perspective of students.
-
To investigate the impact of online education on secondary school students in government schools from a gender perspective.