Education Must Be Brought Back On Track
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-01-12 08:25:40
About the Author
Education is the sector that has suffered the most due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. Even after 10 months, proper physical classes have not resumed in most countries. India is no different. In fact, given the wide gulf between students of different sections of society, the problem is more acute in the country. Hence it is good that the Union Education Ministry has issued detailed guidelines to states to retrieve the situation.
The ministry has directed that first and foremost, detention norms must be relaxed to prevent dropouts in the year when the learning process as we knew it has almost come to a standstill. It has also asked states to conduct comprehensive door-to-door surveys in order to identify children out of school, including migrant students, and prepare an action plan to prevent increased drop-outs, lower enrolments and loss of learning. The Ministry wants to prevent deterioration in the gains made in providing universal access and quality of education in recent years.
The Ministry said that the guidelines have been prepared to ensure that "school going children have access to education with quality and equity and to minimize the impact of the pandemic on school education across the country." To achieve this, the Ministry said that an all-inclusive programme that builds infrastructure, both physical and online, identifies weakness in students and addresses them through bridge courses or remedial learning programmes, targeted home visits for those still learning from home to provide study material and worksheets and even starting of classes-on-wheels for small groups would be needed.
The Ministry's intervention is timely. India needs to quickly address the inequalities that have crept up in school education. Children have been sitting at home for the last 10 months and not all have access to digital learning. Surveys have shown that even those who are attending online classes have reported that the learning process is tedious and they have gained little. While the no-detention policy might prevent dropouts, what is needed is reigniting the spark, in both students and teachers. Physical classes must be resumed as soon as the situation permits and a close watch must be kept on how the leaning process is normalized.
