Adilabad: Closure of schools due to the Covid pandemic and subsequent online classes have kept students away from physical books as they are increasingly depending on PDF files and YouTube videos for learning.
E-learning is fast becoming the mode of education and printed books are slowly being distanced from students and teachers. Many educational technology companies have come up and are offering online classes to the students following the closure of schools.
However, educational experts say parents and teachers should inculcate the habit of reading hard copies of books among students, though online learning is a must for time being due to prevailing Covid pandemic, but this should not go for ever.
They say that books are good friends of children which help them grow up in their lives and for their all-round development. Learning online is different from physically attending classes in school as it is an entirely different experience.
There was a decrease in the sale of textbooks, storybooks and rhyme books that used to be read by the students. Parents also stopped buying books related to personality development, storybooks and small novels for their kids during the Covid pandemic.
The book stall owners say that gradually students are shifting to online content and watch videos related to the content of textbooks and other books.
R. Vishwanath, owner of Venkateshwara Book of Adilabad, said the sale of textbooks, storybooks and jingle books had come down drastically and added that the Covid and subsequent online classes had hit the book business. He said only 30 percent of students had purchased textbooks and the remaining were just writing down notes while attending online classes. He said sales of notebooks and also school bags and pads were also hit hard due to closure of schools and subsequent online classes.
Vishwanath said they had stopped giving orders for textbooks from Hyderabad to sell them in Adilabad since there was a huge fall in the sale of textbooks.
M. Venkatesh, parent of a primary school student in Adilabad, said children stopped reading books after they had started attending classes online and now many children were spending more time on YouTube which became a major information source for various types of content and videos. Children were also depending on PDF files but not on books for their studies.
