Matters India reporter

Siliguri, : A collaborative research study conducted by a college in Darjeeling and another in South America on education in pandemic times and published in Scopus platform is featured in World Health Organisation’s website.

Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.

This 2020 study cited in WHO site is a joint research by Prof George Thadathil and Assistant Professor Yadhika Prasad from Salesian College Siliguri and Professor Willy Chambi and Assistant Professor EGR Silva of Salesian University Bolivia.

“When the call for research project and presentations at the International seminar of the Ecuador Salesian University came up, Chambi suggested we collaborate,” recalls Principal of Salesian College Siliguri and Sonada Fr George Thadathil.

Early in 2020, Salesian College had already done the pandemic research in both Siliguri and Sonada campuses with Sociology and Psychology departments taking the lead.

The Indian partner shared the data and the questionnaire with Bolivian team who replicated the study. The result was jointly presented and later published with the collaboration of Assistant Professor Yadika Prasad of Salesian College Siliguri.

The collaboration was possible as both institutions are members of Internationale Universita’ Salesiana (IUS).

The IUS and Don Bosco Higher Education in India network of some 50 colleges and one university offers higher visibility of Salesian Higher Education.

Although Salesian College Sonada in the Darjeeling hills has a campus in the plains of Siliguri, and Universidad Salesianos de Bolivia are geographically located on two continents, they have both been affected by the pandemic and have faced similar challenges in ensuring the continuity of higher education.

The pandemic caused by Covid-19 forced educational institutions to close doors in an attempt to contain the spread of the infection. However, education did not stop. Instead, educational community found the opportunity to change face-to-face classes to virtual format and enter into a new paradigm in education.

At the same time, this migration from face-to-face to virtual has brought challenges to higher education institutions around the world, among them, the Salesian institutions of higher learning.

The Salesian mission around the world promotes open access to higher education especially for young people with economic and social disadvantages.

Salesian College provided video conferencing tools, and faculty development programs to equip faculty to teach in online mode, make tutorial videos, conduct on-line tests and exams.

Radio Salesian and Salesian TV got together a pool of professors from 64 colleges of North Bengal University to prepare Radio lessons which were broadcast on radio and Salesian TV.

College Management also helped 100 female students with laptops for online education.

The global pandemic situation intrigued academicians and compelled researchers to measure the impact of the new situation in the educational community.