Page 51 - EducationWorld June 2020

vate school managements. What’s your step forward to pay their children’s anxiety will have to be handled with
comment? fees so that the schools can pay care and their well-being given top
The Uttar Pradesh state govern- teachers’ salaries. priority, and schools will have to be
ment has issued directions to private prepared for the fact that there will
schools to defer the April, May and What are your Top 3 proposals for reviv- be stark variation between children
ing and reforming K-12 education in
June fee for students whose parents in how effectively they have been able
are facing hardships during the India? to learn online during these times.
lockdown period. But unfortunately Physical presence in schools is Schools may therefore need to have a
many parents who are financially important because children learn more personalised approach to han-
unaffected have not paid their chil- a great deal from social interaction dling students after this crisis.
dren’s fees, despite teachers putting with peers. So ideally, schools should The fact that teachers have been
their hearts and soul into online open but we don’t know when this so successful in using technology is
learning. Consequently, a large pandemic will be over, so it’s an a great testament both to their skills
number of schools are on the verge uncertain scenario. Till a vaccine and the potential power of technol-
of closing down as they are unable is developed, schools should open ogy. Even after we emerge from this
to pay their teachers’ salaries and cautiously with perhaps one-third crisis, the culture of embracing tech-
meet regular expenditure like water, strength i.e, with each student coming nology that developed as a response
electricity bills, AMCs, EMIs, etc. only one-third of the days (e.g, two to unprecedented circumstances, will
There should be a balanced ap- days a week), with asynchronous hopefully continue.
proach on the part of government learning time from home on the
which should take the concerns of remaining two-thirds of the days (4 What are your future plans?
teachers and schools into account. days a week). And on the days they We plan to develop a more robust
Parents whose salaries/incomes are are in school, it is important to strictly system of e-learning to deal with such
unaffected — government em- follow social distancing, sanitisation, exigencies in future. We will also take
ployees, farmers, health-industry hygiene and mask wearing. extensive steps to ensure sanitisation
workers, food, vegetable and fruit Children need to be supported in of all our campuses before schools
merchants, etc — should voluntarily the ‘exit’ from this situation. Their re-open.

Dr. Ashok Pandey On state government fees deferment/no fee hike circulars
Director, Ahlcon Group of Schools to private school managements. The national lockdown
has inflicted financial losses to millions of households.
physics and education postgraduate of Allahabad Therefore, government circulars giving parents the op-
and Annamalai universities, Dr. Ashok Pandey is tion to pay tuition fees monthly and defer payment until
A the director of the CBSE-affiliated Ahlcon Pub- the end of lockdown are reasonable. Nevertheless, these
lic School (estb.1998) and Ahlcon International School directives have caused worry. Thankfully the courts
(2001) in the national capital with an aggregate enrolment have quashed demands for complete school fees waiver.
of 5,500 students and 320 teachers. Former chairperson Parents must understand that refusal to pay contracted
of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC) fees amounts to a breach of trust between them and
and a #TeachSDGs ambassador, Dr. school managements. It also
Pandey is a nationally respected K-12 endangers teachers’ salaries
education leader with over 37 years and depresses their morale.
experience. Top 3 proposals for reforming
Ahlcon Group of Schools’ response to K-12 education. The Covid-19
the Covid-19 challenge. Our teachers pandemic has exposed the
and students have enthusiastically inherent deep inequalities
embraced e-learning. Groundwork — social, economic, digital
for switch to the online medium be- and educational — of Indian
gan in early March with preparation society. Hopefully we will enter
of a protocol for online teaching- a radically different educa-
learning, intensive teacher training tion age where capability to
and professional development, and learn, unlearn and relearn, and
strategies to engage children and promote socio-emo- socio-emotional intelligence of students will determine
tional learning. success. My Top 3 priorities for education reform: gov-
ernment to invest in building digital infrastructure to
Significant challenges confronting Indian K-12 education in enable all children to receive quality online education;
the Covid era. The closure of government schools has hit a nationwide initiative to build teacher capacity; and
millions of children from underprivileged households revamp of K-12 curriculums to facilitate competency-
very hard because they neither get their mid-day meal based learning.
nor learning. Even students able to access online educa-
tion are struggling with Internet bandwidth problems. I Future plans. We are working intensively on developing
foresee a major challenge in developing teachers’ digital a hybrid learning system incorporating face-to-face and
skills, especially in rural India. remote online teaching.

JUNE 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 51