This appeared in the FPJ on the 22nd of March, 2021
Last week, two stories went relatively unnoticed. The first was Manipal Institute being declared a containment zone, after 50+ cases of COVID were detected. The second was over 100 students in Telangana being detected with COVID, in some schools over a 20% infection rate. Across the world, there are similar stories of campuses and schools being infected, disrupting studies once again. This impacts the education system at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels – having significant long-term consequences for society and the economy as a whole. We have the largest adolescent population in the world, and we need to find solutions to the disruption of education for the 253 million of us who fall between the ages of 10 and 19.
Almost a year ago, much of the world began locking down. The aim was to stem the growing numbers of COVID infections and fatalities. Amongst the thing that came grinding to a halt were colleges and school’s world over. For students from economically vulnerable families, the impact on education has been devastating. Despite the best intentions, world over, the education of the most marginalised families – socially and economically – has faced massive disruption.
A year later, with inoculation in full swing, world over, the normalcy of our pre-pandemic lives still seems a long way off. And one of the biggest debates going on is the right time to get schools and universities working ‘normally’. Post November 2020, there was a gradual reopening of educational institutes in India, but it has been an interrupted phase, with most parents choosing to keep their kids home, safe but unschooled. In Maharashtra, for example, 32% of students between the 5th and 8th standards went back to school, when schools at the middle school level were reopened at the end of January. At the Higher Education level, the UGC has come up with a list of guidelines that forms the framework for institutions to reopen. With last year’s placements already disrupted, and millions of students facing an uncertain future, the priority is final year students, both from the point of view of ensuring they finish their education and find jobs.
With enough medical research suggesting that the vaccine is not a magic wand that will make COVID disappear, rather it is something that will ensure the strains of COVID that infect us aren’t that lethal, COVID is here at least for the near future. And, just as humankind learned to live with other kids of flu, we will learn to live with this. But, in the meantime we have to plan for the ways in which our lives unfold – and one key zone is education.
The first and most critical aspect of mass education is access. India has worked hard over the last 70+ years to ensure that there are schools in the remotest areas, and there is access to higher education. But, till now all the measures have been around physical access. The pandemic, with its inbuilt need for physical distancing, ensures that this is a problem. And, access now means stable broadband, and a device that will allow students to receive video lessons. This could be a medium range smartphone, laptop, or tablet. And this is where the problem begins. According to the NSSO, figures – 4.4% or rural and 23.4% of urban households had a computer. And 14.9% of rural, and 42% of urban households have internet. This was the 2017-18 survey, and it is unlikely that the number would have approached even 50% in the intervening years. If anything with the lockdown and the economic suffering that ensured, it is likely the numbers went down.
There are those who say, let them use smart phones. While the smart phone is a great device and is great at a pinch to use as a substitute computer – it is not something that students can peer into for 6-8 hours, listening to a teacher, or even following notes. It is not even remotely an optimum learning experience.
An entire year has been lost by students in terms of interactions, engagement, and mentoring. For students who are first generation into the educational system, this has been a devastating year. At the extreme, we have seen young men and women die by suicide, unable to cope with the expectations of virtual learning. An expectation that assumes that everyone will have a room, electricity, and a device of their own connected to the internet, to manage their classes. An expectation that has nothing to do with real fife.
For the coming academic year, the challenge is clear – how do you make sure that students from the most vulnerable backgrounds are not left behind? A starting point would be ensuring every student has a device that is capable of running audio and video without issues. The second is to ensure that there is last mile access at the village level. The third is opening up government owned spaces for students to sit and read, or even charge their devices. If the government does not have a plan of action for this, and there is one more year of disruption to education to large swathes of students, we are looking at a lost generation. The first generation that would be possibly worse off than its parents. And that would be a tragedy.