Need to evolve creative solutions to edu challenge
One of our biggest global challenges presently is the normalisation or renewal of education as we knew it. In India, the Union Health Ministry has issued guidelines for a phased reopening of school and college campuses. A hybrid model, entailing a mix of online and physical classes, will be the order of the day. In many states, schools opened on September 21 but physical classes have not resumed yet—it’s only to enable appointments if students of Classes 9-12 want doubts clarified by teachers, in allotted time-slots and following safety measures.
Meanwhile, the UGC’s revised academic calendar allows PG students, those from streams needing practical classes and freshers inside campus for classes from November 1. The stakeholders—students, teachers, parents—are highly sceptical though. Will social distancing, masks and face shields suffice inside enclosed spaces? And lab work involves multiple use of instruments.
The challenge indeed is huge. For students and parents, the choice between academic career and health is a dire one. Many parents face a bigger dilemma: Can they continue bearing high education costs when income levels have dropped or dried up? Even middle-class families with two children are finding it difficult to carry on as before.
In Karnataka alone, 1.5 lakh children have switched from private to government schools. The government, no less cash-strapped, is not sure how to cope with this reverse migration. For teachers, it’s a choice between health and livelihood.
Neither schools nor universities are expected to go back to functioning the way they did in pre-Covid days any time soon. Online classes will continue, which deprives large sections of rural India from accessing education. Going by our surging Covid cases, precaution is paramount and well justified. How to fill the large gaps that this will inevitably leave, that is the real question. More than patchwork, ad-hoc solutions, that’s where we need to get liberal and creative.