Optmizing Online Schooling [Part 2/5] Understanding the pain-points of student’s parents:

The biggest issue parents have against schools in the present scenario is that they have to pay the entire year’s fees while their children are not attending school. This pain of parents is quite understandable because even if their children are getting online education from the school, they are not getting all the other services and benefits their children would have access to if they were attending school. This pain is more severe in the case of those parents whose incomes have suffered due to the pandemic.

• Parents believe that their children are not gaining much through online education imparted by the schools. Some even feel that this whole concept of online education is a fraud to extract fees from them. ‘Real learning is not happening and the deal isn’t fair’ is what they keep on saying.

• Parents aspire to teach their children in the best school possible within their income range and take admission accordingly, sometimes even stretching their budget. A certain level of self-satisfaction and sometimes even ego satisfaction takes place when parents see their children attending a reputed school. However, now that their children are not attending school, these aspirations and feelings remain unfulfilled.

• Many parents, especially those with more than one child had to purchase new digital devices and also set up internet connectivity at home to ensure that their children can attend online classes. This was an unwelcome expense, especially for those parents whose incomes had taken a hit due to the pandemic.

• Misuse of digital devices (mobile phones, laptops or computers) by children is another issue faced by many parents. Children have to be given access to digital devices for attending their online classes but parents never come to know when their child started chatting and playing games online with their friends.

• The pain of parents of pre-school and primary section is even more as one of the parents has to sit with the child while attending the classes. Most of the times, it is the mother who has to sit with her child during the online class keeping aside her household works to be done later.

• Although most schools have conducted online exams, parents are circumspect about the seriousness and authenticity of these exams. They feel that these exams were just a formality and the results of these online exams do not give them the true feedback of their child’s learning status.

• Most mothers tell us that they are fed up with handling their kids all day at home and they are getting increasingly naughtier by the day. Mothers are missing their peaceful me-time of about 5 to 6 hours they used to get when children attended schools. [This feedback made us realize that apart from education, schools also provide this benefit to parents].