Just months after the outbreak of Covid-19, the World Bank declared that the pandemic had caused more than 1.6 billion children and youth which constitutes around 80% of children enrolled in educational institutions across the world, to be out of school across as many as 161 countries, including India.
Going by how the later part of 2020 unfolded, it is only obvious that the situation must have aggravated by now. The unprecedented pandemic and the prolonged lockdown situation have posed innumerable challenges with regard to the education system. Given the state of the education system in our country, the situation becomes more worrisome in India.
A major challenge that came fore with the onset of remote learning was lack of right tools and technical knowhow on students part as well as parents and teachers. Most institutions relied heavily on third-party applications that had the provision of video conference calling. While these tools turned out to be conducive for office meetings, they failed to solve the purpose when it came to education.
The technical nuances acted as a hindrance in effective utilization of the tools and adding to the woes was lack of strong internet bandwidth. An effective way to deal with these roadblocks is going for the right Edtech platform, which has its own host server for conducting classes and doesn't rely on other third-party applications. This would not just cut down on the technical complications but also require lesser internet bandwidth.
A few experts have raised concerns that the increased reliance on online specific strategies would entail reaching only children from better-off families. However, this concern holds little relevance in the wake of technological advancements taking place at a rapid pace around us.
While most education providers have focused on popular modes such as video tutorials, the need of the hour is to integrate mechanisms such as podcasts and similar tools that require less data usage as well. The online strategy devised must be such that it effectively reaches people from all strata of society.
At the administration level, governments and institutions can look towards working with telecom players to introduce zero-rate policy to fulfill educational needs. Factors pertaining to students' families play a pivotal role in determining a teacher's ability to provide education. What goes on at home impacts a student's propensity to learn.
Some of these factors include poverty, existence of domestic violence-like situations and separated parents. To tackle these situations, teachers and institutions need to enhance communication with parents and guardians. While the frequency of parent-teacher meetings needs to be increased, teachers must ensure that they effectively communicate the concerns and make the parents or guardians aware of the lasting impact on students' education as well as life. Parents on their part need to be responsive to the concerns raised and take effective remedial solutions.
A significant component of education module is conducting assessments and examinations. It's easier to assess the students on the basis of multiple choice questions in the context of online learning and that is what most edtech platforms rely on. However, an effective way to ascertain the acumen or aptitude of a student?
The answer is no. Real learning can be measured through subjective assessments. Also, an effective tool is also needed for teachers to check these assessments. To overcome this major obstacle in the prevailing education system, we provide an Edtech platform that comes with a comprehensive assessment system, which addresses all the aforementioned concerns.
The writer is Dev Roy, Founder, Digital Aristote