When the present Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi spoke about his dream to transform the country to a Digital India, little did he know that going digital will become the need of the hour for the entire world. The dependency on the digital way of life has been the only way available for most of us to fulfill many of our requirements. Today with COVID 19 affecting the lives of around 3.5 million people across the globe and deaths of around 250 thousand, the world has understood it cannot take things lightly.
The challenge is how to manage the coexistence of this threat and still carry out essential activities as far as possible during this period of crisis. The education sector is one such area which required the attention of the Government and the other relevant stake holders. The challenge was to come up with strategies to minimize the risk of the spread of the disease at the same time to continue with process of teaching and learning. Worldwide different countries adhered to the WHO guidelines to close down schools and colleges thus in way minimizing the risk of exposure to the education community. However to maintain the continuity of the process of education the countries adhered to methodologies which supported their infrastructure and technology penetration. Developed countries, which had the processes and technology support, were able to introduce newer systems of teaching and learning. Lesser countries struggled both in terms of infrastructure and technology support to impart continued education to its masses. With more than 70% countries getting affected with this Pandemic there was only the ability to find a parallel system became pressing.. In India there were also the sights of the struggle of the entire education system to cope with the crisis. The school system has their own set of woes. The Government run schools which in most part of India lack basic infrastructure and technology are still finding stable ways to impart education. Learning content in TV channels are coming in rescue to many state run Government schools. The private schools who are better than their Government Schools in terms of systems are experimenting with different platforms like zoom, whatsapp as well as some online learning apps.
Many of such learning apps have mushroomed and are promising solutions which are compelling schools to go for it. These are pretending to make the lives of the teacher and students easier. You tube and MOOC based platforms like NPTEL are also coming handy. In the higher education scenario also the dependency is on online classrooms, MOOC platforms , You tube and other app based tools for continuous learning and value addition.
Little have the education community tried to understand the situation of the learner and the provider. In this new form of teaching and learning the students are struggling to keep pace with the new demands of taking classes over the net. Every platform has its own merits and demerits and the students have no other choice to adapt to it quickly. This is the expected of a junior class student to a college going student. Most students are finding hard to cope with this tech based learning where lessons are being offered in an environment which is hardly learning friendly.
The Question is –Is this form of learning and teaching here to stay, Is this the “Next Normal” for the education community. It is being said that the future lies in digital penetration of the classrooms to homes of the students and teachers. Can this be realistic in a country like India? Here in the Indian school system many teachers are females who have to bear the addition workload of managing their homes, their children, their families and then find time to ensure the delivery of this new form of teaching. Most of them live in homes which will not support a disturbance free surrounding to carry out this. The technology support is also not adequate to make it a smooth exercise. Also the student will require a proper virtual classroom setting for taking advantage of ths new form of learning. Present study from home settings are challenging for both the student and the parent.
The present crisis has bared the teething problems of implementation of digital ways of education. There is a requirement of mass scale improvement of infrastructure of schools and technology support to make digital education adopted widely. . In the college and the higher education scenario, faculty is also finding lives difficult to adjust to the new demands of tech based teaching.
Many of the traditional universities do not have a proper infrastructure to go for a transition to the newer system. Most of them are not even ready for a hybrid system. Most faculties in Indian universities are trained in the tradition “Chalk and Talk “method of delivery. So though the Government is promoting the idea of online classes and other digital means it is far from reality that it could be implemented.
As a result the objectives of continued education are a difficult proposition. Whatever developments that is visible is in the centres of education excellence which have all that ot requires to support this transition like the IITs, NITs, IIMs and other Institutes of eminence. So the question remains are we looking at a very practical Indian model of future education or we are blindly aping some model of a non contextual country.
(The writer is Head of Programme-Marketing Associate Professor, Xavier Institute of Social Service.)