"Legal education places heavy reliance on active interaction amidst students. These interactions helped us bring out nuances of law and cases being discussed and thus deepen conceptual understanding. This was severely hit by the sudden change in platform."
DR. SANGEETHA SRIRAAM
One of the most adverse impacts of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown has been on education in general and legal education in particular. The syllabi and curriculum at under-graduate and post-graduate levels were drafted for physical classroom atmosphere. The unprecedented lockdown forced us to adapt to digital platforms. While it is popularly dubbed as “online classes”, what is actually happening is “emergency distance education”. The system was simply not designed for this change. While teachers were willing to give their everything to keep the mill running, the challenges were huge. From internet connectivity issues in remote locations, to learning to use the digital platforms like Webex and Teams, to the challenges in assessing performance during such times, the challenges faced by students and educators were galore. But there were added challenges to legal education.
Legal education places heavy reliance on active interaction amidst students. These interactions helped us bring out nuances of law and cases being discussed and thus deepen conceptual understanding. This was severely hit by the sudden change in platform. Moot court competitions which are important sources of exposure and networking was severely hit. While with time, these competitions became digital, the difficulty in working as a team and limited networking opportunity was definitely felt. Further, closed courts and industries meant reduced caseload. This meant that internship opportunities were also severely affected. But personally, watching my students graduate without certainty over their prospects of higher education and job opportunities was the harshest.
The lockdown also brought a few blessings. Several faculty members got opportunities to participate in faculty development programme and refresher courses without taking long leaves. These programmes focused on the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in legal education and helped teachers adapt to the digital scene. Students and teachers also got to participate in several conferences and seminars, including international events without having to shell huge amounts for travel and accommodation. These opportunities helped all develop their CV tremendously.
Digital platforms have been a part of legal education since April, 2020 and is going to be the primary medium of delivery of several months. Going forward, it is hoped that the learnings from these months of online learning can be combined with our traditional expertise with respect to classroom teaching to help us develop blended learning methodologies that are at their core, student-centric and allowing measurable outcome-based education.
(Dr. Sangeetha Sriraam is the Head (i/c) of the Department of Law, School of Legal Studies, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur.)
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