CHENNAI: In times of great crises like this, the education sector in the country should encourage the youth to emancipate themselves by experiencing and questioning the challenges in the society, says Jawahar Nesan, Vice Chancellor of the JSS Science and Technology, Mysuru. By pushing for online education that helps only to meet the curriculum deadlines dictated by the market, we are alienating students from social reality, he says.
There have been several transformations to the education sector in the past few years. Is the current lockdown a crucial period?
A: Education is the first sector to have been paralysed since the start of the pandemic as social distancing is not at all a possibility in the campus. Now, the society is facing a great threat in the form of rising death toll due to the coronavirus. The consequences are unimaginable. Living conditions and life styles are facing redefinition, demands and supplies have come to a standstill and productions are lost. College campuses are not only the places for delivering predetermined curriculum but also for grooming the youth in response to contemporary developments, challenges and requirements posed by the society.
Is the education system not engaging with the current situation? The sudden growth of Ed Tech companies is a direct result of the lockdown.
A: On the contrary, what the country has been doing since the onset of this pandemic is what the neoliberal forces have been wanting to capitalise out of this turbulent stride. Policy makers, law makers, educational service providers and people at the helm of affairs have been voicing for continued teaching and learning online. The children and youths need to learn how to overcome this crisis, how to stabilize the mind and streamline their thoughts so that they could logically apply their mind in taking decisions. They are disconnected from the society they live in.
Are you saying that online education is bad for students?
A: There is no doubt that online programmes and resources might certainly attribute to subject matters of instruction and improve the learning experience of students. But, will this offer a foolproof all-round learning opportunity to the learners and enable the educational programmes to attain curricular objectives. The outcome of these programmes are aimed at preventing any disturbance to the creation of an employable person for the market. It has no relevance to the experience a student is having right now. It treats students and education as a commodity. When the country is amid a crisis, the education system should aid the emancipation of that society. (For full story, visit newindianexpress.com)