By Patricia Mukhim
The announcement by the Union Ministry of Health that Class 9-12 will reopen on September 21 has caused trepidation among school authorities, teachers and parents. The students of course have very little to say on the matter because no one deigns to consult them even though at the end of the day, they are the guinea pigs to be experimented on. In fact, every time there is a new education policy in this country it does not evolve from having studied student’s behaviour vis-à-vis their text books and curriculum. It is expected that students will automatically fit in into something designed by the wise elders who know everything about everything.
A ten year old writing an article for this paper says he is missing his school buddies. He didn’t say he as missing his lessons; much less his teachers. He confessed that he was doing quite well with home classes supervised largely by his mother. This is the case with most families today. In the case of both working parents and those that cannot work from home (WFH) a new term that has gained currency, then some schools organise classes in the evening. But that is a difficult task for both parents and teachers because that’s not the best time for the human brain to absorb nuggets of wisdom.
Speaking to some of the parents and school authorities one gets the feeling that institutions falling under the respective State Boards and the CBSE have to comply with the Government of India directives while the same does not seem to be binding on those under ICSE. St Edmund’s School for instance has decided to only call Class 9 boys that have problems with specific subjects and will do so in batches so that social distancing is managed. This sounds like a sensible first step. The school can then take a call after seeing how it goes in the first few weeks. After all, there is no single protocol that works. Let’s remember that even the much discredited World Health Organisation (WHO) did several back and forth before they could get some things right. The tentativeness on whether the use of masks is good, bad or indifferent has finally been considered to be medically appropriate because Covid 19 spreads through aerosols let out by humans when they cough, sneeze, speak and sing. These days most people with a penchant for singing do so inside a room all by themselves. The idea of a “choir” now is passé.
But coming back to the reopening of schools, some principals have said that they will have to comply with State Government directives but if, God forbid, anything inadvertent happens and some kid or kids test positive after coming to school the parents will lay the blame at their doorstep not at the Government’s. Hence they are in a dilemma.
The pandemic had unleashed a situation of deep insecurity because there is no expert insofar as dealing with the Covid19 virus is concerned The WHO and ICMR revised their protocols several times. Then there’s politics and the pressure for the governments at the centre and the states to either “open up” or send the bulk of their population into a state of penury. In an ideal world we could have expected a happy balance between the sobriety of politics and the modesty of expertise. But as the pandemic became unstoppable, India and the world had to make difficult choices. While distancing was the preferred choice the world of work for many means bridging the distance. Today we console ourselves saying that we have to learn to live with the virus. All our medical and scientific inventions and the technology at our command have not helped us to deal with the virus. It is here that we find to our dismay that scientific knowledge cannot always keep pace with the mysteries of biology. As someone has rightly stated, “What we need to accept, as we struggle to cope in a shattered world, is that the orthodoxies of knowledge are as bad as the boastfulness of salvation politics.”
Alas! This existential crisis has tended to exacerbate the pre-existing education disparities by reducing the opportunities for the most vulnerable children, youth, and adults from poor homes or those technologically disabled, to continue their learning. Once the virus leaves us and I am sure it will, we will have to evaluate the learning losses that threaten to extend beyond this generation and erase decades of progress. We have to be prepared to see many in our rural areas dropping out of school. On my visit to Kongthong and other nearby villages, I hear parents say, “We are taking our children to the plantations. What will they do sitting at home? Besides, there’s no one to look after them at home! Let them learn some farming at least.” Sure children would do well to know farming and its discontents but how do we get these students back to a life of mental discipline?
The pandemic has created an educational shock. We can see this panning out in Meghalaya with some arguing in favour of examinations and holding forth that examinations are the only tools for assessing a student’s mental and behavioral prowess while others oppose the idea. I am not so sure that examinations are the only way to assess a student’s capacity to learn. But there is one thing we can all agree with; that is post Covid we have to re-imagine education and accelerate the change in teaching and learning. Already several schools have tried their best to reach out to students and to see that they are on top of things and not underwhelmed by the fact of being cooped up at home. Indeed, after the first month of the Lockdown some schools I know have made massive efforts to respond to the huge jolt caused to the education system as we have known it. No matter how small the initiatives the fact remains that students had adapted to the teaching-learning sessions. Hence change is possible and change we must.
Those in the field of education must seize the opportunity to find new ways to address the learning crisis and bring about a set of solutions previously considered difficult or impossible to implement. Perhaps the following could be the entry points for now. School administrators need to invest their energies in addressing the learning losses and preventing dropouts, particularly of marginalized groups. Another very important aspect is to offer skills for employability programmes. The teaching profession requires massive support to also get teachers back on the rails. Teachers too must be future ready and that requires some inventiveness and training.
The pandemic has forced us all to take a whole new look at the meaning of education and what Right to Education has meant and should mean henceforth. The United Nations ‘Policy Brief on Education during COVID-19 and Beyond,’ says that the Right to Education now has to include connectivity; remove barriers to connectivity; strengthen data and monitoring of learning. One must add that along with books, educational gadgets are now a necessity. The Government must invest in these gadgets for those that cannot afford them.
Education will indeed have to take a 360 degree turn and both teachers and learners have to do this together.