Page 38 - EducationWorld March 2022

Cover Story

Nor was this reality highlighted by which intensive teacher
the compromised academy or over- training is vital for success.
hyped media. Undoubtedly for chil- State governments need
dren in the vast majority of house- to urgently invest money
holds in the lower half of the country’s and expertise in remedial
iniquitous socio-economic pyramid, education programmes
on-campus schooling is a safer option to begin the recovery pro-
than learning from home. Fortunately cess,” says Prof. B.S. Ri-
in recent weeks, a broad consensus has shikesh, head of the Hub
emerged that children should be back for Education, Law & Policy
on campuses and learning in class. at Azim Premji University,
However, it's pertinent to bear in Bengaluru.
mind that following the most pro- A more radical solu-
longed lockdown of the education sec- tion proposed by EW edi-
tor of any major nation worldwide, the Remedial education challenge. Inset: Rishikesh tors is for government to
world’s largest cohort of children and declare 2021-22 as a zero
youth estimated at 500 million has plan includes suggestions to improve academic year. This means that in
suffered huge learning loss and has teacher training, upgrade ICT facili- the new academic year 2022-23, all
a steep mountain to climb to make ties, measure children’s learning at- schools and children — especially in
good the lost lessons of the past two tainments and introduce customised government schools — will follow the
pandemic years. The official attitude learning interventions. 2021-22 syllabus and curriculums
seems to be that it will soon become Meanwhile, a field research study (see https://www.educationworld.
education as usual when classes re- titled Loss of Learning During the in/declare-2021-22-zero-academic-
sume in the post-pandemic era. Pandemic (2021) of the Bengaluru- year/). Although parents of children
Yet informed educationists are based Azim Premji University which in private schools — especially in the
unanimous that a carefully planned tested 16,067 children in 44 districts Top 3,000 rated and ranked annu-
remedial national education strategy of five states of the Indian Union, ally by EducationWorld, which fairly
is required to make good the learning found that 92 percent of children in smoothly switched to digital online
loss of primary-secondary students in all classes have lost at least one spe- teaching-learning during the pan-
particular. In the pages following we cific language capability, while 82 demic lockdown — are unlikely to fa-
propose 10 solutions for children back percent have lost mathematical ability vour this proposal, the Central and/
in school to recover lost learning in the acquired in the previous year. or state governments can, and should
wake of the unprecedented lockdown After the first wave of the pandem- declare 2021-22 a zero academic year
of education countrywide for over 700 ic, the responsibility of reopening and for government schools.
days. shutting schools as also designing and
implementing learning recovery pro- 2 Prioritise teacher training
1 Design and implement grammes devolved upon state govern- and development
robust remedial education
ments. Therefore they need to make
programmes substantial budgetary provision for
remedial education and learning re- oor quality teacher training and
egrettably, despite governments covery. Moreover, hard pressed state Pdevelopment is the Achilles heel
Raround the world implement- governments need to mobilise not just of Indian education. The country’s
ing remedial learning programmes monetary resources but employ high- 10,000 degree dispensing B.Ed col-
since the first wave of the Covid-19 ly qualified academics to design and leges — most of them in the private
pandemic in 2020, India’s Central implement robust remedial education sector casually certified by NCTE
government showed no urgency in programmes to make good children’s (National Council for Teacher Educa-
formulating a national learning re- unprecedented learning loss. tion) — are infamous for their outdat-
covery programme. Belatedly, last “With children out of school for ed curriculums, poor infrastructure
month (February), after an 82-week almost two years, bridge courses of and encouragement of rote learning
nationwide lockdown of all educa- three-four months won’t be sufficient. pedagogies. With uninterrupted cor-
tion institutions, the Union ministry They need at least a year-long bridge ruption in recruitment of government
of education has written to 28 state programme to recover age-appro- school teachers for over half a century,
governments to introduce “remedial priate learning levels. In Karnataka, a Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) was
interventions” to bridge children’s we have recommended a year-long introduced in 2011 for in-service and
learning gaps. The learning recovery learning recovery programme, for aspirant teachers with a five-year win-

38 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2022