Page 54 - EW Jan 2024_Neat

Cover Story

weeks, your editors wrote a detailed
eight-page cover feature titled ‘Why
Schools Should Reopen Right Now’
(https://www.educationworld.in/
why-indias-schools-should-reopen-
right-now/). Citing a detailed Unesco
study titled Education from Disrup-
tion to Discovery (2021), we high-
lighted that “the prolonged closure of
primary-secondary schools in India
of 56 weeks and counting, is in sharp
contrast to Russia’s 13 weeks, China’s
27, UK 27, France 12, South Africa
37 and Tanzania 15. Only the US (56
weeks) and Brazil (53) have shut their
schools for as long”, noting that the
US and European countries were far Kingdon: mirror opportunity Rajagopalan: NEP 2020 silver lining
ahead of India in terms of children’s
access to internet connectivity and (https://www.educationworld.in/de- has chosen to do the same with any
digital learning devices. The advice to clare-2021-22-zero-academic-year/) other survey that may show up a not
restart schools “right now” backed by quoted your editor as stating: “The so sanguine state of affairs. Instead,
eminent educationists Dr. Geeta King- heavens won’t fall if youngest children many spokespersons for the govern-
don, chair of education economics and relearn the 2021-22 syllabus to build a ment have resorted to bluster. They
international development at Univer- strong foundation for future learning. have even attempted to try to take
sity College, London and Dr. Swati It’s certainly a better option than rou- the country back to the dark ages,”
Popat Vats, president of the Early tinely promoting children to the next says R.N. Bhaskar, former editor
Childhood Association (ECA) and a higher class where the vast majority of of Business India and currently an
pioneer crusader for universal formal children will experience severe learn- author (Seven Strategic Advantag-
ECCE (early childhood care and edu- ing difficulties and stress. Extraordi- es that could Steer India to Wealth
cation), among others was ignored by nary challenges require extraordinary (2019) and Gautam Adani: Reimag-
the Union education ministry, educa- response to bridge the huge, not yet ining Business in India and the World
tionists, and education policy formu- formally calculated, almost two years’ (2022)), educationist and researcher
lators at the Centre and in the states. learning loss of the pandemic era.” who publishes a popular current af-
A GAIN IN FEBRUARY 2022 government and academia. support of the latter half of his state-
fairs blog (bhaskarr.substack.com). In
Again this proposal was ignored by
by which time the nation-
ment, in his blog Bhaskar has repub-
In light of the Covid-19 misman-
wide closure of education
popular YouTube satirist Akash Ba-
institutions had extended agement and neglect of education lished several video clips uploaded by
in particular — remedial education
to 82 weeks and the National Achieve- initiatives to recover ground lost nerjee, lampooning government min-
ment Survey conducted by NCERT in during almost two years of closure isters and MPs peddling mythology as
November 2021 revealed poor learn- of academic institutions because of science and history.
ing outcomes especially of class X 15- over-abundant caution, having been The Union government’s decision
16 year-olds (as indicated above), in feeble — withdrawal from PISA 2022 to opt out of PISA 2022 after mak-
a follow-up lead feature, your editors to avoid the PISA 2009 debacle be- ing a firm declaration of Indian par-
suggested declaration of 2021-22 as came inevitable. More so because the ticipation, has disappointed other
a “zero academic year”, i.e, all school results of PISA 2022 were scheduled well-informed educationists moni-
students countrywide should repeat to be declared in December 2023, a toring India’s flailing K-12 educa-
the year’s syllabus and curriculums to few months before General Election tion system. “PISA 2022 offered an
build a strong foundation for future 2024. important opportunity for holding a
learning (https://www.education- “This tendency to shy away from mirror to ourselves, to measure the
world.in/declare-2021-22-zero-aca- any kind of competitive exercise which standing of our 15-year-olds against
demic-year/). Unusually, Summiya confirms the poor state of affairs in their counterparts by way of common,
Yasmeen, author of the special report India is nothing new. It has done this objective international testing. It’s a
feature titled ‘Education Emergency: with PISA all the time since 2009. pity this opportunity was missed. In-
Declare 2021-22 Zero Academic Year’ What is worrying is that the country stead, the education ministry has in-

54 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2024