Online learning has shown significant growth over the last decade, especially at the time of COVID-19; online learning has become more centric in people’s lives. The pandemic has forced the system to isolated working, which has boomed online learning usage.

Even before the pandemic, there was already high growth in the online education market, and it was supposed to reach $350 Billion by 2025, which might increase after the COVID-19 scenario. Due to the flexibility and affordability, people are finding online education more attractive than classroom education.

With online classes, you can now complete your MBA from anywhere you’d like—whether from your kitchen or living room, your office, a coffee shop, or whichever room you fancy. Online education has brought all the top and unaffordable institutions to your doorstep. You can do your masters from Harvard University while sitting in a remote village in Maharashtra or Kerala.

Certainly, online education has some advantages and thus is getting popular. But is it really better than traditional classroom education? Recently a student of mine who is doing GNM nursing, came to me with a request to leave her course, which she had joined at the time of the pandemic. She has already completed two years of learning and left with just one year of education. Her decision was extremely surprising for me as her academic record was quite good.

After a brief discussion with her, I learned she has no problem with the course but is not comfortable working in a hospital environment. She does not want to deal with patients. She joined her course during the pandemic’s time and studied online. She even gave her exams online and cleared them with good scores. But after the pandemic when she had to work in a hospital, interact with people practically, she could not handle it. This was not the only case; many students came with similar complaints. Some students had adjustment issues with their friends.

Some said they are not comfortable working together with their classmates. They are not comfortable sharing their room with their best friend. Some suicidal cases also came up during the pandemic period. Many had gone into depression which still continues.

The isolation and not interacting with people have put them into a shell which is hard to break. Today’s kids are comfortable chatting with an unknown person sitting in the USA but not comfortable conversing with their neighbour whom they have seen from childhood. They have a lot of virtual exposure but still lack the confidence to face the world. We need to understand what real education means and why we need to get educated.

Is it just reading some topics and knowing them by heart? I may know the world, but how will it help me or anyone else if I cannot use it to develop society? Real education augments us as a person. Erect the confidence to face challenges. Give the power to bring a change in our lives and in society.

A child studied nursing but cannot handle patients. An MBA professional is not comfortable facing clients, then how is the education helping them? Today we all live in a nuclear family, so for any child, human interaction is very little in the family. On top, children are always glued to their mobiles and iPad, which has radically restricted their physical and social movement.

The only place where they get to meet and interrelate with people is their school or college. This interaction is an absolute necessity for every child for their physical and mental growth, which cannot be provided through online education. Online education can work as a support system to the traditional education system but cannot be the ultimate solution.

In ancient times even the prince had to go to the gurukul, where they could easily afford home-schooling. The aim was to give them a healthy environment to grow and make them social people.

Online education is a great option for working professionals who cannot manage time from work commitments. Online education can do wonders in upgrading knowledge and expanding our network. But when we are trying to shape a child, online learning cannot be their go-to path. The difference between learning and education is microscopic but very crucial. Learning something enhances our knowledge and thus educates us.

But education does not guarantee to learn. We need to learn through our education, which can be achieved through our traditional education system with the help of online learning. Only online learning can be a disaster for any individual. It may increase the mental and physical illness among the kids and create a negative impact in the entire society.