Pre-service teacher education at the time of pandemic: challenges and opportunities

With the arrival of an unanticipated and unprecedented situation of COVID-19 several things underwent major changes which include the education sector as well. The entire educational activities have been shifted to the online mode with a number of changes in the teaching-learning processes. Along with its advantages this sudden change has brought in a number of challenges with it. But those advantages and challenges differ from person to person and from one course to the other. The teacher education is one of those courses which has significant applied component in it. The practice component plays a very vital role in teacher education courses. The actual practicum or the internship component is hardly possible to be done online. Therefore, the challenges that the student-teachers and teacher-educators are facing in current times are quite disparate as compared to the other theory-based courses. Though online education is very flexible in terms of time and cost it has not escaped from its challenges. Having the knowledge of the effective usage of technology is a prerequisite for any kind of online learning. The study gives an account to the possibilities and challenges of teaching teachers online.