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<p>World society faced an unprecedented set back with the onslaught of the novel corona virus, it not only exposed the welfare states of global south but also the crumbling infrastructure of influential global north. Governments across the globe are assessing the damage in different spheres of life and strategizing their institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to these (welfare) states to push for privatization of government schools and to scale up the online education delivery mechanisms because conventional classroom teaching was always an expensive affair. Using Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 as reference point of pre-covid period we have tried to analyse the impact of online education on the learning levels of primary students. Six primary schools of Sagar district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh were chosen for the study. Out of these six schools available in the city premises, four schools were private schools, one was state government runed and one was central government school. A self-developed questionnaire and testing tool was prepared in accordance with the ASER&nbsp; 2018 Testing tool. Objective of the study was to access the learning levels of students in three sets of schools who had to switch abruptly to online education, different mechanism these schools have adopted to cope up the damaged caused in the learnings of students and understand the role of school management in the learning outcome of students in post-covid classroom performances. Results point out that central government&rsquo;s primary school students&rsquo; basic reading and mathematical skills were better than well-equipped private schools. The paper will discuss the reasons of under-performance by the state government schools in general; and in particular, the different measures, tools, and methodological approaches adopted by the central government school during the pandemic to minimise the learning loss in students.</p>