ACTIVITY BASED METHOD OF LEARNING OF ENGLISH IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURAL AREA OF HOOGHLY DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL IN PRE AND POST COVID 19 ERA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

The system of school education of the developing and under developed countries of the world mainly runs through traditional education system, executed within four walls using chalk duster method. After the endemic COVID 19 was over after its terror of at least three years, school education limped to traditional four walls school system on being processed with the effect of digital gadgets, learning, pseudo leaning, non-learning and dropout. The urban students could easily adapt the change in school education during COVID 19. But question arises whether the rural, agricultural and subaltern group of pupils did fairly adapt the change in educational practices during COVID period. The study analyzed students’ activity in primary schools of West Bengal before and after COVID 19 in terms of skills set by their textbook Butterfly. Classroom observation technique and focused group interview has been adopted for the present study. The study found that quality of learning and ultimate outcome of education in primary schools of agricultural areas declined after COVID 19 pandemic. Rural areas failed to take the opportunity of digital environment to continue and enrich their learning. The end effects as the gap in quality of learning enlarges in before and after pandemic.