The article considers the problems that arose in the situation when the world’s system of education has been forced to transfer into distance learning mode because of the pandemic. For the first time mankind had got an experience when it became necessary to abandon traditional training. In such situation, it was possible to continue providing education both in schools and in the universities due to the advantages that “digitalization” of education carries, though a number of shortcomings that both teachers and students faced were also revealed. Empirical experiment allowed to find out that distance education has significant shortcomings which affect both quality of knowledge and physical and mental health of people as well as socio-cultural adaptation and socialization of foreign students. Abandonment of traditional education in favor of distant one carries significant losses in the quality of education and, as a result, decreases the ability to create a harmonious and comprehensively developed personality. Authors of the article come to the conclusion that distance education should be used as an additional form of education in comparison to basic one (traditional), that is, it can provide positive results only in the complex (traditional plus distance).