The coronavirus is a Data Time Bomb, screams The Atlantic. It will be a long time before we will have understood the exact origin and the impact of the Coronavirus 'drama' to the global economy.
As I sit to write this, it is estimated that about 100,000+ people have been affected globally and it has caused over 4000 deaths. Economically, the impact could be as much as USD 2 trillion in Q1 of 2020 as per the estimates of number-crunching self proclaimed experts. For all you and I care, all of this just could be a damp squib. In fact, we all wish and pray that this is an overhyped drama and that it goes away as dramatically as it appeared and we get on with our lives.
The fact of the matter is that it has already disrupted life across the globe. I am sure you have seen dozens of video evidences now floating in your social media world. Airports are deserted. Hotels are barely showing any occupancy. Container ships are sailing at lowest occupancy, says Morgan Stanley. Prices of bulks like Iron ore and Coal have plummeted.
Microsoft, FB, Amazon, Dell, Apple have all formally announced non-participation in as well as cancellation of their own conferences world over. Brazilian Ranchers and Chilean winemakers have reported massive drop in demand as China is a central player in the Coronavirus drama. Italy has quarantined the entire nation. We can go on and on. In short, we have a situation on hand.
While many a buddhijivi (intellectuals) are still debating the impact, the hype and the truth of it, the reality has already hit home. Fears have spiked over the past week or so. Over 50 patients have been reported to have contracted Corona Virus in India. Many cities have been affected immensely. Thickly populated urban work spaces such as Gurugram, Bangalore, Hyderabad have announced “work from home’ decrees. Schools in many cities announced early summer breaks with immediate effect. More actions appear in the offing.
Harvard University's President Lawrence Bacow has asked students to not come back to campus after the current break but attend all lectures online from Mar 23, 2020. Ohio State Univ has announced cancellation of in-person classes with immediate effect in favour of virtual instruction. Schools are shut in many parts of the world including India.
There is no gainsaying the fact that educational institutions including Career Launcher are a place where youngsters congregate and spend hours together. Over the past week or two, parents have been wondering about how to deal with the exam preparations for their wards since the summers represent peak activity for all kinds of entrance examinations and college admissions.
Students or learners have different needs and reasons to choose what they choose. Our empirical data covering a few million students bears this out loud and clear. Some students want high touch and in-person coaching as a deep need. Forcing them away to an online learning module is a non-starter as that is not being customer centric. It is not about technology. Similarly, a certain percentage of students are self-learners. They like studying at their own time and space. No amount of incentive or cajoling can get them to travel to a physical location for learning. Between these two extremes, there are a dozen hues. In the normal course, our “customer obsession” translates into our offering to each student exactly what he or she needs or likes.
This is not a normal situation, alas! We need to respond with decisiveness and alacrity.We are ready!
The Coronavirus crisis cries out for extreme steps so that we also contribute to the efforts by various Government / other agencies. This situation calls upon us to play our part. CL is ready to deal with the crisis and will administer “Readiness Weekend” next week. Our students have been consuming our services including counselling, attending teaching sessions, take assessments and reach out to mentors from the comforts of their homes and from mobiles and laptops. This is no new situation for us.
As a matter of demonstrating readiness, we encourage all students to attend the lectures from their homes this weekend.
We will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and revert to the ‘business as usual’ as soon as possible.
We understand our responsibility to ensure no disruption of preparation for the students, as these summer months are crucial. Any critical disruption could hurt a student or family by a year. Asking students/parents to avail of our services from home is a duty of ours in the current crisis where every agency, organization and citizen must play his or her role. At the same time, I would also like to reassure parents, students, faculty and employees that every step has already been taken to ensure disinfection/stock taking of each CL study centre and offices across the country/ globe. (See our Advisory and FAQ release)
We also believe and hope that this is more of a hiccup than a real crisis on our hands. Stay reassured that we will play our part in staying true to our promise for the career seeker in your home, centre or city.
Satya Narayanan R
We are committed to helping students and educators continue learning outside of schools or usual environments. Given the technology access, the learnings now can happen from home on a laptop or a handheld/mobile device. Universities, schools and coaching players to benefit directly from Career Launcher, the platform. Be sure to check out our single sign-on platform
In the wake of potential spread of the Corona Virus across the country, there is concern among parents, students and teachers as to how it would affect their studies and careers.
This is the time of the year when almost all 12th class pass students are looking toward writing various entrance exams such as Law, Management, Engineering, Medical and others.
Some of the advisory from World Health Organisation (WHO)
Wash your hands frequently. Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water.
Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.
Maintain social distancing
Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
Why? When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease.
Harvard asks students not to come back to campus after spring break!
Harvard University will begin transitioning to online classes by March 23, the first day of classes after spring break, due to challenges posed by the novel coronavirus, Harvard's President Lawrence S. Bacow announced today.
Students are asked to not to return to campus after the break in order "to protect the health" of the community.
Bascow said in a statement that "the decision to move to virtual instruction was not made lightly."
"To our students, especially those of you graduating this year, I know that this is not how you expected your time at Harvard to end. We are doing this not just to protect you but also to protect other members of or community who may be more vulnerable to this disease than you are," he added.
With the WHO advising people to maintain social distancing, the fall out can be when students gather in classrooms and this could be a potential threat for the health of the students.
We, all the stakeholders viz., Career Launcher, CL Centres, Parents and Staff, must ensure that the careers of our Students are not compromised! The spread of CoronaVirus, at crowd gatherings as in Classrooms, could be a potential threat for the health of the students, which would indirectly affect the Careers of the students.
Career Launcher has been taking Proactive Action on various fronts to tackle the problem and take preventive action to ensure 100% safety of all stakeholders – Students, Parents, Teachers and Staff of CL.
The following actions should be taken at centers:
In addition to the above basic hygiene steps, we will also offer Live Online classes as well as Video recording to all students joining for Express Programs this year. This will help the students to ensure that their preparation is not hampered in anyway in the event of any eventuality.
Readiness Weekend: As a matter of abundant caution and demonstrate that CL is well prepared to handle any eventuality, we are going to conduct all MBA classes scheduled for Delhi centres for the coming Sunday (15th March) through our technology enabled Studio 8. This is a live classroom and students can attend this class sitting in their homes and join through laptops or smart phones. You can encourage students to join the same. It will be available on Career Launcher account of the students free. The schedule will be shared tomorrow. This will also be a test run of the load that the Studio 8 classes can take if more students attend the classes online.
We are very mindful of the fact that the student needs all support at this delicate time and Career Launcher is committed to ensuring each and every support and no Corona Virus or any other impediment would derail the preparation of the students.
We are Prepared!
Parents are concerned about their wards. Health and Career are equally important and Parents would like to ensure that the preparation for entrance exams for the students of class 12th is NOT Compromised due to the worry on spread of CoronaVirus. This is also true for all students preparing for long term coaching including MBA, GATE, Civils, Law, BBA and other entrance coaching!
The students who are looking at attempting the upcoming entrance exams in next 60 days are most likely to miss out on the preparation as they may be reluctant to attend regular classroom classes because of WHO advisory and precautions. Moreover, the students who have been preparing for these exams for last one year or so will also not be able to go through the final revision, which is so critical before the exam. With the onset of summer, the spread of virus is expected to be curbed. however, given that peak summer is still some time away, we might as well be more cautious than adventurous.
The students who waited for preparing for these exams post their class XIIth exams getting over in next 10-15 days, may not be able to do so in case the virus spreads and have the worry of missing out a year.
Only students who are prepared despite the Corona Virus and possible restrictions, either self-imposed or real, will have the chance to make it to best colleges!
There are multiple steps that CL has/will be taking to handle the situation. As a first step, CL has sent an advisory to all its centres to be ready to battle the possible impact of the Corona Virus.
The following actions have already been taken at centers of Career Launcher.
Career Launcher has taken the following steps to ensure continuity of studies and smooth conduction of classes
Upon enrollment each student is given a user name and password for the online portal called Career Launcher, where she is able to access regular practice tests, GK updates, Mock Analysis. The online classes will be made live in the student’s ASPI account.
A special Online Live Batch is being created and beamed from our Online Facility at Delhi. Each class will be for 4 hours.
The student need not come to the centre to attend these classes. The classes can be attended from anywhere with either a Laptop or a Smart Phone equipped with Internet connection.
In case a student misses a live class, there are recorded classes available in student’s ASPI account, which a student can access anytime whenever he wants to.
No the classes are absolutely free for the students who are enrolled with us for any of the classroom programs. The Non- classroom program students need to pay the regular fee as per the policy.