‘My 3D class has become 2D’: In polluted Delhi, when classrooms go hybrid, students fall behind

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers say, there was no concept of “hybrid” classes. Schools used to shut down occasionally due to extreme cold, heatwaves or rain but teaching did not happen online. The pandemic changed that.

According to teachers, the learning gaps they see today did not exist before the pandemic and that hybrid learning is now deepening those gaps.

The post-Covid classroom, teachers say, is dealing with weakened foundational skills, shorter attention spans, loss of writing fluency and reduced classroom engagement.

“Pre-Covid, even if schools shut down for a few days, learning did not fracture,” says Ritu Sharma, senior coordinator at ITL Public School and an English teacher for classes 11 and 12. “Children came back and picked up from where they left. Classroom discipline and attention span remained intact.”

“The biggest difference is stamina… Earlier, children could sit, write, engage. After Covid-19, even senior students struggled to sit through six hours of school,” she adds.

Debjani Das, who heads the English department at Amity International School in Saket, and has over 30 years of teaching experience, said writing and language skills have taken the sharpest hit. “Earlier, corrections were immediate… Online, that instant intervention disappears.”

One teacher for two classrooms

On the days hybrid classes are held, Nagpal teaches two classrooms at once. About one-fourth of her students sit in front of her and the rest attend online.

“I’m speaking to children in the room, while also watching a screen,” she said. “If someone online has a signal lag, they’re still on the previous question while I’ve moved ahead.”

The first thing to collapse, teachers say, is interaction. “Physically present students ask questions,” Nagpal says. “Online, those confused remain silent. Cameras stay off.”

Also, students hesitate to interrupt and teachers lose the ability to read faces. “The raised eyebrow, the distracted stare, the child who has not understood but does not know how to ask. These are things we can only make out in person,” she adds.

Hybrid classrooms, Sharma says, are inherently unequal. “As a human being, I will always give more attention to the child sitting in front of me.”

The learning loss is most visible in subjects that depend on material, logic and practice. In biology and chemistry, experiments are demonstrated on camera. “But the child studying online is not doing it. They are only watching,” says Nagpal.

In primary classrooms, the gap is starker.

Rupi, a Class 5 teacher at Modern Public School who teaches science and social science under the IB Primary Years Programme, recalls a lesson on evaporation.

Two bowls of water, one near a window and one under a fan, were placed in the classroom.

Students physically present predicted outcomes. But one child attending online faced repeated network lags. By the time her connection stabilised, the class had moved on. Later, when asked why the water disappeared, she wrote: “Because the teacher removed it.”

“Science at this age is experiential. You cannot replace that,” Rupi says.

How students are affected

Savita Hamilton, who works with the junior wing at ITL Public School, says children from the “corona batch” – those who began schooling during the pandemic – are already showing lasting effects. “They are restless. They have no ability to sit, no patience. Writing skills have gone for a toss.”

Also, hybrid schooling assumes a home environment that many children simply do not have. Teachers described parents calling to apologise for not being home during online classes. “Both parents are working. They ask teachers to ‘give extra care’ because the child is attending alone,” Rupi says.

For senior students, home brings different pressures.

Sharma speaks of adolescents carrying emotional turmoil, family conflict, financial stress, parental separation that often surface only in physical classrooms. “Trust has to be built before learning can happen. That is almost impossible on a screen.”

“When hybrid stretches beyond a few days, parents plan vacations,” Rupi says. Children attend classes from cars, trains and hotel rooms.

Some teachers described a new mindset among students. “They start waiting for pollution to begin, so that they can stay at home.”

How schools have adapted

Most schools have not officially lowered assessment standards. Instead, teachers compensate quietly.

“We hold remedial classes, extra sessions, and call parents,” Rupi says.

But the effects show up in skills that are harder to quantify. After years of typing assignments, students now struggle with pen-to-paper exams. “Handwriting is muscle memory,” Sharma says. “Give yourself a break of 15 days and try writing at speed, you won’t be able to.”

At Bluebells School International in South Delhi, psychology teacher Sukhmeen Kaur says students from Class 6 overwhelmingly prefer physical classes. The school has responded by installing air purifiers. “Parents also don’t want hybrid. Who will look after the children at home,” she asks.

For class 10 and 12 students, most schools have resisted hybrid mode almost entirely, citing pre-boards and practical exams.

Academic consequences

Latika Gupta, a faculty member at Delhi University’s Department of Education, says hybrid mode “completely trivialises what education actually is”.

“We never did anything specific to repair what was lost (during Covid-19),” Gupta says. “Children simply moved ahead grade by grade. Hybrid mode keeps interrupting the very continuity needed for recovery.”

Government school students, Gupta says, often live in one-room homes with no quiet corner for study. “Even low-fee private schools draw children from similar backgrounds. There is no peace, no space.”

“Children are becoming indifferent to school,” she says.

Also, hybrid learning does not affect boys and girls in the same way, Gupta says. “I saw my own students, even at the Master’s level, being absorbed into household chores.”

“Education happens in institutions. That is why institutions matter. In school, girls are free from household responsibilities. They are there to learn, to play, to grow,” she adds.

Solutions teachers offer

Teachers argue that the solution lies not in normalising hybrid classrooms but in re-prioritising physical schooling. “During Covid-19, schools were closed only for six weeks in Japan. They compromised in everything, but schools went on,” Gupta says.

Sharma says schools could consider modifying schedules rather than suspending physical classes altogether. “Maybe at the most you can reduce the school hours during winters.”

Nagpal, meanwhile, adds, “Academically, we can cover the most important parts in the physical mode, maybe during summers or July and August. If this has to happen every winter, we will have to redesign, restructure our entire framework.”