Page 48 - Education World September 2021

Cover Story

Restarting post-pandemic school education
Management Committees) mandated by s.21 of the RTE
he first challenge — and a large mountain to climb — for Act, 2009, should endorse safety protocols such as mask-
Tnewly appointed Union education minister Dharmendra ing, distancing and alternate day’s attendance, if necessary.
Pradhan is to get the world’s largest child and youth popula- In private schools, PTAs should be empowered to endorse
tion estimated at 500 million back in schools, colleges and safety protocols instituted by school managements.
universities and learning. Since March 2020 when the BJP/ 3. In pre-primary education, in-class learning should be re-
NDA government belatedly woke up to the threat of the novel stricted to one hour per day, supplemented by 40 minutes of
Coronavirus, children have been cooped up in their homes online learning. The NIPUN programme devised by NCERT,
for over 60 weeks — the longest lockdown of education cam- approved by the Union education ministry and endorsed by
puses worldwide. the Early Childhood Association of India should be wholly
The argument that the majority of children who live in implemented.
squalid slum dwellings and over-crowded homes are safer in 4. As recommended by economics Nobel laureate Abhijit Ba-
school where they receive some learning and a free mid-day nerjee and Pratham Education Foundation (PEF) CEO Rukmini
meal, is unheeded by politicians and education bureaucrats Banerji (Economic Times, August 26) to address learning het-
(see EW July cover story ‘Why Schools Should Open Right erogeneity inside classrooms, the TaRL (Teaching at the Right
Now’, on www. educationworld.in). Recently, the parliamen- Level) solution developed by PEF which requires teachers to
tary standing committee on education confirmed that 80 per- quickly assess every in-class child’s oral maths and reading
cent of children countrywide haven’t learned anything during capabilities, and group children in clusters according to their
the past one year, and that 70 percent of the child and youth competences for teaching-learning, is the best way forward.
population have no access to digital learning devices. Against 5. A foolproof system of ensuring daily classroom attendance
this backdrop, we present a road map for newly sworn-in of government school teachers — strongly recommended by
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to get children Geeta Kingdon, professor of education economics and inter-
back into schools and learning right away. national development at University College, London — should
1. Classify teachers and higher education faculty as frontline be urgently devised and implemented.
workers and vaccinate them and all residing and serving in 6. The Union education ministry should mandate a compul-
their homes. sory, nationwide 45-minutes daily in-service programme to
2. Direct all schools countrywide to reopen after full sanitisa- train all pre-primary-class XII teachers in digital ICT (informa-
tion of campuses. In government schools, SMCs (School tion communication technologies) for classroom usage.

1.20 million government schools. are blocking all attempts to make
“The plain truth discovered as far teachers and government schools
back as 1999 by the PROBE Report is more accountable for children’s learn-
that 25 percent of government school ing outcomes. In my opinion, govern-
teachers are absent every day and ment school and college teachers are
half of those who do attend school public servants and as such should be
aren’t teaching. The consequences debarred from contesting elections
of this reality, routinely swept under and be less visible at polling booths.
the carpet, is reflected in the annual Instead, SMCs (school management
ASER surveys of the globally respect- committees) appointed under s.28 of
ed Pratham Education Foundation, the RTE Act, 2009, and dominated by
which have been reporting declining parents should be resurrected and em-
learning outcomes in rural primary powered to ensure teacher and school
schools countrywide for over a decade. accountability,” advises Kingdon.
Consequently, even poorest families Although it’s highly improbable
have lost faith in government schools that Pradhan, with no previous re-
and are sacrificing consumption to Swati Popat Vats: fresh start opportunity cord of academia and the education
enrol their children in budget private portfolio, will address these deep-
schools. This problem is mainly in cent of seats in the upper house are rooted problems of pre-primary-class
the states where teachers unions are reserved for secondary school and col- XII education in his three-year tenure
politically very powerful. Under Ar- lege teachers. Moreover, teachers also as Union education minister — gen-
ticle 171 (3) (c) in eight large states of serve en masse as polling booth man- eral elections are due in 2024 — Prof.
India including Uttar Pradesh which agers during elections. This makes Kingdon believes that NEP 2020 of-
have bi-cameral legislatures, 8.33 per- their unions very powerful and they fers opportunity to begin the reform

48 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021