In late January, the Ministry of Education announced the postponement of the 2020 spring semester for schools nationwide. Early this February, many schools started the new term by using online platforms to take classes during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Will online education replace traditional schools? Student readers share their opinions.
Simon: Online education is good for those in a short course and at an older age. For children, traditional school is still the best. Education is not all about what's in our head but also how we deal with people around us.
Kaka: Online education is the best solution under the present situation. Seventeen years ago, when SARS was hitting China, I was a graduating senior. I still remember clearly that we had to wear masks to attend classes every day, which was very uncomfortable. Kids today are very lucky.
Mumuzi: I think at least for now, schooling provides more for students than studying by Internet. In the long-run of their development, besides knowledge, students need to take part in different class activities to gather first-hand experience, which makes it possible for them to solve practical problems when leaving school.
Olivia: There are both advantages and disadvantages, but during the outbreak period, schools just want to catch up with progress and provide more resources. For example, for students who will take the "gaokao" and "zhongkao", it's a difficult period. Most of them felt worried when they knew they could not go back to school as before. Schools are trying to provide high quality online courses although there are still a lot of problems to be solved.
