Education beyond 2020

Covid19 entered our worlds and disrupted our lives without a premonition nor a cautionary warning. This unprecedented crisis pushed us and our existing systems, norms and habits into the future we were never prepared for.

The coronavirus pandemic, that has been responsible for millions of infections worldwide, has affected almost every sector across the globe, including the education sector.

In India alone, nearly 320 million students across pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels have been affected by countrywide COVID-19 school closures.

Amid COVID-19 disrupted academic year, government has been quick to recommend the shift to “online learning” and educational institutions are coming up with better methods in integrating pedagogy and learning with digital modes, to substitute for traditional classroom education. Once and for all, the Indian education system is finally evolving and transforming the paradigm towards online education and student-oriented learning.

However the transformation was not without obstacles, for although the government was quick to recommended shifting to “online teaching & learning”, India’s massive digital divide — with rooted gender, region, caste, class, social and economic inequity, was subconsciously ignored in the process.

In countries like India, where Internet penetration is only 36 per cent, the biggest challenge to online education for students is accessibility itself. Deciding on a mode of uniform delivery of education in the midst of this pandemic is a daunting task, as internet users per 100 stand at 78, fixed broadband subscription per 100 stands at 1.34, and only 46 per cent of households have television. In fact, only 8% of all households with students aged 5 to 24, have both a computer and an internet connection.

In such essence, there are many challenges associated with the accessibility of education owing to the existing digital divide. And coupled with this are other factors like the reliability of local power supply, device ownership, number of kids in a household etc. For homes without regular electricity even during normal times, how can children be expected to take up online learning during these hard times?

Another major challenge to online learning is lack of digital skills in teachers and students. Not only are most teachers and students digitally inept, a large number of teachers have never used an online environment to teach ever before. Teaching a course online ideally requires intensive preparation, such as designing a lesson plan while involving multimedia resources like audio and video contents. This has posed new challenges for many teachers and students who learn from them.

It is still difficult to predict when schools, colleges and universities will reopen owing to the increasing community spread in India and so instead of lamenting the lack of proper digital infrastructure, we need to come up with creative solutions and innovations both students and teachers can use to cope with the new normal. And perhaps this disruption to education systems will offer valuable lessons and provide a unique opportunity for us to reimagine our education, the existing curriculum, and pedagogies.

The first step in ensuring seamless online learning is to address the digital disparity. While a personal computer would be the most preferable mode for online classes, a simple smartphone could also serve the purpose. Thanks to RelianceJio revolution, smartphones in India cost a fraction of what they used to earlier. With further subsidization of telecommunication services, if state governments and institutions themselves could provide at least a smartphone/tablet to each student, the educational accessibility gap could be easily overcome.

Once the digital divide is addressed, teachers and course instructors need to be efficiently trained to adapt to the digital environment. There are countless tools and platforms available for use and institutions have to make use of the best of it. A shift to online tools will potentially transform the role of teachers, turning them into coaches, mentors and facilitators. Their prime focus needs to be on engaging students, mentoring and guiding them and should not be limited to mere one-way information exchanges.

More teachers need to be mobilized especially in rural and remote regions, where the education sector was adversely affected by the pandemic. Schools need to hire local teachers from within student’s communities, with adequate Dalit and gender representations. Not only will such community-based approaches help deal with student issues like drop out rates, it will also increase the teachers’ accountability to students and their families by their ability to empathize with the child’s lives. Teaching is an uncompromisable job and efforts to empower and mobilize teachers will surely help in mitigating the challenges faced by children in online learning.

De-emphasize structured school timings. With online education, classes from 9am to 4pm are practically impossible. Health related issues are one of the major problems kids face as a consequence of online learning. Eyestrain, bad posture, and other physical problems may affect students in the long run. Hence when running online classes, reduce and keep the hours to maximum of 4 hours and not more. Assignments allocated after class, should also keep in mind the physical and mental health of the students. Institutions must issue useful guidelines regarding correct sitting posture, recommendations for desk exercises, regular breaks etc. Counselors and counseling sessions with students need to be prioritized now more than ever before. Workshops & classes on cybercrime and cyber-bullying should be conducted periodically to prevent such troubles.

Incase of primary level children, classes should be kept for not more than 2 hours each day. This is also helpful for parents who have to constantly supervise their younger kids, in between their household chores and work from home woes.

Re-innovation of the curriculum in accordance with technological changes is another need of the hour. The National Education Policy 2020 has already been released and now its implementation needs to be in accordance with the current online learning scenario.

The syllabus needs to be restructured with a more holistic and student-oriented approach. Learning needs to be self-initiated and self-motivated for us to achieve this goal. For this interactivity and engagement of a physical classroom will have to be rebuilt into the online learning classrooms to keep students engaged and interested at all times.

Interaction, engagement and collaboration is the key step forward. From nursery students to college graduates, student engagement is of utmost importance. This can be done with the help of online tools, through fun hands-on activities for younger kids and teacher guided course discussions and debates for older students. Educators must bring in a lot of innovations to preserve the element of interactivity and collaboration in online classrooms.

The choice of activities with today’s online resources, tools and apps are plenty and not limited to presentations, surveys, investigatory projects, audio/video project, podcasts, quizzes, mind-mapping with illustrations, graphics etc. Giving students the ability to choose their desired mode of assignments places students at the center of learning while encouraging them to think independently and creatively.

And last but not the least, parents & guardians have to be actively involved in this journey. Parents, along with the students need to be consulted in each and every step of online learning. This is fundamental in alleviating the issues faced by students in online learning.

Carry out regular feedbacks on the processes, assignments and testing modes. Find out where students find difficulties and test out methods and practices that are best suited to the students, whichever level of education they are in. Ask parents and guardians to monitor their children’s education, especially in school-aged kids, as it helps prevent a plethora of issues like misuse of internet, cyber bullying etc. Encourage the formation of virtual PTA groups to help safeguard the safety and interests of children in the online learning era.

As students, some of us can’t wait to get back to our physical classrooms, and back to the good old “chalk & talk” methods that though flawed, has served us well for so many years. So perhaps this disruption to education systems worldwide might be an opportunity in disguise, for all of us, from teachers to students to parents.

A wonderful opportunity to liberate education from outdated syllabuses, and reimagine our education systems for the wonderful future that is yet to come. And so when we get back to our schools and campuses later, once the virus recedes, we can go fully equipped as liberated students of the 21st Century!