Introduction
Background of the study
Education is the driving force to social and economic progress in any nation. It is important in finding methods to provide everyone with high-quality education that is both affordable and accessible1. It becomes even more important in the current situation of covid-19 pandemic, because every educational institution faces significant difficulties in maintaining the traditional methods of teaching and learning. The only way to solve this issue is through online or web-based learning. India faces numerous challenges in order to satisfy the beneficiaries of quality online education as a developing nation. The institutional and technological infrastructure, culture, computer literacy, and accessibility are the main causes of this.1 The closure of educational institutions became necessary as the corona pandemic spread throughout the world. For kids and teenagers, education was important, but health was seen as being much more crucial. UNESCO announced the closure of schools and colleges on 18th March 2020 due to pandemic. India was also started to report many cases of covid-19 and closed all the educational institutions.2
The lockdown in the country brought many changes in everyone’s life including online classes for the students as well as other professional education.3 In the starting time, online classes were very difficult to be handled by students even by teachers. One of the most advantages of online class was, it shaped the future of education. 4 ‘Online Classes’ became a popular concept in school when the pandemic struck the world. The very existence of online classes was reinstated in schools to avoid missing the essential months of school life. Schools and universities had to enforce online classes during covid-19 due to strict lockdown. Every institute started using various online tools to keep the classes as effective as physical classes. While technology has been growing at a rapid rate for quite a few years now, the real importance was discovered when the whole ‘from home’ culture came into existence. The ‘study online’ part of school life was unexpected but slowly everybody did adapt to it. Learning is a lifelong process of attaining success. Taking online classes was always for additional classes and courses. Online classes were flexible and were often taken along with a primary source of education. It is now the ‘new normal’ in every phase of education. 5 Online learning was appreciated because of its creativity and became a mirror of a person’s needs and reflection of good environment at individual level. It brought many highly achieved creators and proper environment especially for students and successfulness in their lives. Educating in an open environment like the home, children can watch behaviours in their parents. Parents must model this conduct if they want their online students to remain committed and study hard. Children often embrace behaviours that they perceive to be positive. A student can develop work habits and expectations by setting pace and expectations that are similar to the child's learning style, regardless of the parent's emphasis.6
Need of the study
Despite the fact that different nations have varied rates of COVID-19 infection, the pandemic has caused school closures in 186 different nations that affect more than 1.2 billion children worldwide. Some are wondering whether the acceptance of online learning would continue to endure post-pandemic and how such a shift would effect the global education sector in light of the abrupt move away from the classroom in many parts of the world. Numerous online learning platforms, including BIJUs, are providing free access to their services in response to high demand.7 Parenting can be subject to trendy and shifting techniques in a changing environment, but in certain rich families it may become a difficult chore. However, parental love, safety, support, and care are crucial for a child's development. Experts define parent engagement as the shared obligation between parents and teachers to help students achieve their academic objectives. Similar to parents, instructors should prioritise their children's educational goals and take the initiative to commit, work with them on their students' learning, and do so.2
Malik S, Tyaki HK conducted a survey study of parent’s opinion on online teaching among 2000 parents of pre-primary and primary classes from ten public schools of Delhi National Capital Region. The study revealed that more than 75% of the parents surveyed.
The parents and guardians are of the opinion that educators are making every effort to provide one-on-one help to their pupils as well as to find a way to contact with the students who do not have access to the internet. 8 On June 19 in Amristar, Tribune News Service Mother of a 4-year-old child and Assistant Professor who complained that it had become difficult for her to assist her child in finishing homework, carry out activities prescribed by professors, and then create films and mail them back. 9 The investigator encountered the same challenges and learned about the burdens faced by colleagues who were teaching children online. In light of these considerations, the researcher was motivated to carry out the current investigation.
Objectives
To assess the level of burden of parents of primary school children who attend online classes.
To find out the association between level of burden and selected demographic variables.
Operational definition
Assess
It refers to evaluate, estimate the nature, quality. In this study, it refers the score of level of parenteral burden.
Burden
It refers to something that is carried: load. In this study it refers the bearing of the load due to the children’s online classes.
Materials and Methods
Study Design
A descriptive study was conducted among 60 parents of primary school children who attended online classes.
Tools
Section A: Demographic Variables consists of child’s medium of class, father’s & mother’s eduaction & occupation, type of family, number of children attending online classes and etc.
Section B: A self‑structured Likert scale consisting of twelve items measured on a five‑point Likert scale rated as 0-Never, 1-Rarely, 2-Sometimes, 3-Quite frequently, 4-always was used. The tool was categorized into mild burden (≤16), moderate (17‑32), and severe burden (33‑48). The reliability of the tool was r=0.80..
Results
Table 1
Frequency and percentage distribution of parents (N=60)
Table 1 represents the frequency and distribution of parenteral burden on online classes, majority of them, 38 (63.3%) were mothers, 33 (55%) of the children belong to 1-2nd Standard, 37 (61.7%) were hindus, 36 (60.0%) belong to urban areas, 37 (61.7%) of them belong to Nuclear family, most of the parents 30 (50.0 %) were studied only higher secondary, most of them 44 (73.3 %) were working parents and in most of families 37 (65.0 %) had two children.
Figure 1 showed that the level of burden of parents of primary school children attending online classes. It represents that most of the parents 34 (56.7%) had experienced severe burden, 24 (40.0 %) of them experienced moderate burden, 2 (0.3 %) had experienced mild burden.
Table 2
Association between burden of parents with selected demographic variables (N=60)
Table 2 depicts the association between parenteralburden between with selected socio demographic variables.
Discussion
The present study assessed the parenteral burden of children attending online classes during covid-19. Table 1 shows that most of them are (63.3%) are mothers. Majority of the parents (73.3%) are working parents. Figure 1 showed that majority of the parents had moderate to severe burden. Rathaliya A, Malarkodi S et al conducted a cross-sectional study to assess perception, burden and satisfaction of 220 parents of primary school children attending online classes during covid-19 lockdown in 2020. Google Form was used to assess perception, burden, and satisfaction regarding online classes and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that Out of 220 parents, 42% experienced moderate to severe burden with their children’s online classes during COVID-19 lockdown.10
Conclusion
This present study revealed that most of the parents had experienced severe burden. So this study insists the need of counselling to the parents. Parents have a direct contact with the children’s education especially in an online learning setting. To be an educator or a teacher at any age and reinforce the importance of online learning through hardships can empower children and assure that impact can be positive. Finding the balance as a parent, between instructor and fellow student, can be difficult. But, those who can master the technique will see great success from their rising stars.7, 11
Article DOI
