Page 37 - EducationWorld June 2020

They seem to be unaware that the Responsible governments should be
Covid-19 pandemic has adversely sensitive towards all — including vi-
affected everyone, including school tally important private schools — and
promoters and managements. not just parents.
Schools are being denied their What are your Top 3 proposals for reviv-
legal right to collect fees which are ing and reforming the K-12 education
urgently needed to pay the salaries system in India?
of teachers and staff and keep the First, schools have to reinvent them-
private school system alive.
Secondly, I have apprehensions selves. The prime lesson of the Co-
that parents might hesitate to send vid-19 pandemic is that technology
their children to pre-primaries, must be infused into classrooms to
aid and enhance learning outcomes.
boarding schools and abroad, in the
near future. Secondly, schools should learn to
reduce their expenditure to make
A large number of middle class
households may shift their children education pocket-friendly. Third,
the Central and state governments
from high-end to relatively low-
cost schools. Moreover, providing should double their annual educa-
tion budgetary outlays for public
co-curricular, sports and life skills
education will become a great chal- schools. Driven by political compul- education, so that quality education
becomes accessible to financially
lenge for school managements. sions state governments are issuing
orders without considering the plight disadvantaged households.
Several state governments have issued of teachers and other employees of
fees waiver/ deferment circulars to pri- schools. As a result, even parents What are your future plans?
vate school managements. What’s your who are perfectly capable of paying To educate parents to understand that
comment? contracted school fees are waiting fee payment to schools is not expen-
Neither the Central nor state govern- for government fee waiver orders. diture, but necessary investment and
ments have the authority to interfere However, they should bear in mind to effectively communicate to Central
in bilateral financial transactions/ that if the private education system and state governments the message
commitments between parents and collapses, it may take years to revive. that the private education sector is
critical for national development.

Swati Popat Vats
President, Early Childhood Association
resident of the Podar Jumbo Kids (PJK) chain of
498 preschools with an enrolment of 45,000 chil-
Pdren and 6,500 teachers across the country, and
founder-president of the Early Childhood Association
(ECA, estb.2011), Dr. Swati Popat Vats is India’s most
fervent proponent of universal early childhood care and
education (ECCE) for India’s 165 million children below
age six.
ECA’s Covid-19 disruption response. Much before the na-
tional lockdown was announced on March 24, in associa-
tion with Google, ECA organised a webinar to introduce
ECCE teachers to digital teaching-learning options. After sad because it has been proven beyond doubt that formal
the lockdown, ECA has been conducting free-of-charge ECCE is the foundation of all education. In particular,
webinars daily for members and online refresher courses standalone preschools promoted and managed by edupre-
for educators. In addition, ECA has published a detailed neurs are confronted with the prospect of financial ruin
54-page guideline on reopening preschools and daycare and closure as fees dry up.
centres post-Covid. Moreover, all our PJK preschools are Post Covid-19 ECCE reform recommendations.
following a specially designed home-based learning pro- • Central government should sharply upgrade the coun-
gramme that combines yoga, home chores and live ses- try’s 1.34 million anganwadis and implement recommen-
sions with teachers on Facebook. dations of the draft National Education Policy of the K.
Covid-19 challenges for ECCE. The Covid-19 crisis which has Kasturirangan Committee
forced closure of all education institutions including pre- • National Council for Teacher Education should intro-
primaries, will negate many years of hard work done by duce structured teacher training degree programmes for
ECA to impact the importance of ECCE upon parents and pre-primary teachers in consultation with ECA
government. Currently, parents are apprehensive about • Central and state governments should involve ECA to
sending youngest children to school and are increasingly upgrade and reform anganwadis, and supervise private
accepting the argument that ECCE is dispensable. This is preschools.

JUNE 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 37