Medical education: Covid journey. Editorial

Abstract

We all were caught unawares and were in for a rude shock! In fact we were forced by a tiny miniscule RNA with a spiked cover to take a virtual journey in situ to all the countries all over the globe. Harsh reality it is! The COVID –19 pandemic hit all of us very badly in all the fronts leaving us temporarily paralyzed especially in our daily lives, economies and Educational Institutions. The teachers, students and the educational institutions had to face an academic stand still and that forced us to introspect and then see the challenges to be faced and the outcome. We are not free of COVID and it is still haunting us with hopes of a successful vaccine showing up sooner or later at our doorstep! While it is crucial to contain COVID –19 spread, it is also important to continue educational process making use of technology. We had to have a transition from conventional /traditional teaching to an online mode of teaching which became imperative(Rajab et al., 2020). We had to find ways to deal with the academic stress and had to give a sense of direction and credibility to reorient and restructure the curriculum and tried all modes of communication. Wewanted tomake sure that students are engaged in effective and constructive ways. This paradigm shift allowed students to participateactively. We needed to take measures to safeguard the interestsof teaching fraternity as well as the students.