A preliminary report of a nationwide survey conducted by Lego Foundation in Denmark stated that students give importance to peer interactions, good teachers, fun learning content and knowledge gained from experimental approaches. The UNICEF says that children want to go back to school. We can reasonably assume that these aspirations hold true for Indian children but how prepared are we to send them back to school?
According to various estimates, the pandemic and lockdowns have led to an alarming drop-out rate from schools, migration of children from private to government schools due to inability to pay fees, increased abuse at home, inadequate nutrition, etc.
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Industry experts will agree with the claim that for adults to unlearn and relearn is a very expensive and time-consuming process. Thus, if the foundation of education is weak, any effort at a later stage to strengthen it will only yield sub-optimal results.
Issues to be addressed
So, what are the major factors that need to be addressed at the foundational level? UNICEF has raised the issue of nutrition. Children, depending on their age group and gender, need to consume 1,000-3,200 calories per day. How close do India’s mid-day meal schemes address their nutritional needs?
The UNDP Human Development Report 2019 states that students who fall behind may struggle “if the level of classroom instruction (based on textbooks that follow ambitious curricular standards) is considerably above their learning level. These problems are exacerbated at higher grades, if students are automatically promoted to the next grade without having acquired foundational skills.” While the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes pedagogical freedom to the teacher, content-heavy curriculum forces instructionist rather than constructivist engagements by default, as teachers are always short of time. As a result, students simply consume what they are taught; they don’t become creators. Supporting slower foundational development while focusing on the essentials will allow for deeper and more meaningful learning.
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Need for skilled teachers
The National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education 2009 quoted the NEP 1986 which said, “The status of the teacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of the society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its teachers”. NEP 2020 has entrusted the intellectual development of kindergarten children from underprivileged sections to matriculation-pass Anganwadi teachers and helpers whose monthly salary is about ₹10,000 and ₹5,000, respectively. Anganwadi teachers will not be able to fulfil the task of developing underprivileged kindergarten students into creators simply because they lack the expertise to do so. The proposal to upgrade their skills using online methods is grossly inadequate.
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Working in rural areas
If the sight is on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal for Education, India needs to work on a war footing. It will have to acknowledge that EdTech is a resource of the privileged and learning higher-order cognitive skills requires time and personal support. One way is to mobilise students in higher education to contribute three to six months in government-sponsored programmes by working in the most remote and underdeveloped areas to educate children and teachers. Private companies could also sponsor mentorship programmes where employees spend about a month on the field. This will have a transformative effect on all the participants involved. Current solutions appear to be designed in the cloud without adequate exposure of the ground.
The ability to successfully satisfy Sustainable Development Goal 4 will depend on the priority afforded to school education. And with budgetary allocations based on priority, the question that begs to be asked is, what is the priority of school education?
Vikram Vincent has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from IIT Bombay
