• SUMITA SINKU

The Covid-19 pandemic that has affected the world’s economies has also muffled the education industry. End of March, 2020 recorded the spread of pandemic to over 185 countries and resulted in closure of over 95% of all schools, colleges and universities. The spread of the epidemic was so speedy and quick that there were hardly any plans for transition to online teaching or learning from offline classes and no one could anticipate the associated possible risks and opportunities that a sudden change could bring in the sector. The effect has been radical, as educators expect technological solutions to support remote education and learning. Digital transformation in education sector is, however, not limited to post Covid-19 online education and learning. Although some educational institutions have used technology solutions for the past years, the importance of digital transformation in education environment has now been realized in most schools, colleges and universities during the pandemic. Indian education system is still not mature at both the urban and rural areas. Under these circumstances government imposed nation-wise lockdown on March 25th, 2020, has made severe impact on the education system. Since the Indian education system is dominated by classroom study, the present scenario has made the functioning of the educational institutions go very difficult. This paper makes an attempt to measure the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in unleashing digital transformation in the education sector in India, highlighting some key areas of transformation in education sector, and tries to give a roadmap to future e-learning system. Data were obtained from secondary sources, mainly newspaper articles, magazines and journals and various government reports. The study found that in India, a variety of virtual tools was unleashed from primary education to higher education where educational activities switched to online learning. The observations point to the fact that India, generally, has some pockets of excellence to drive the education sector to the next level, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. Much as this pandemic has brought with it massive human suffering across the globe, there is an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access. The result of the study indicates that leveraging digital tools will not only raise the excellence level in education but could also be a true game changing experience for both students and teachers in coming years.

Digitalization, Covid-19, Online Learning, Modern Education, Traditional Education.

"DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN EDUCATION SECTOR: THE WAY FORWARD FOR INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 9, page no.e38-e48, September 2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2109507.pdf

"DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN EDUCATION SECTOR: THE WAY FORWARD FOR INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 9, page no. ppe38-e48, September 2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2109507.pdf