Page 42 - Education World July 2020

Cover Story

Converting Covid-19 threat into reform opportunity

he number of suggestions and recommendations of and parents before issuing circulars.
Tways and means to manage the Covid-19 pandemic and One-sided government decisions and
simultaneously reform K-12 education during the prolonged policies without consultation with key
lockdown of all schools and education institutions sent to stakeholders lead to disagreement and
EducationWorld, has become a flood. Given below are some court cases. Government should provide
suggestions by experienced school promoters and educa- broad guidelines and parameters, with
tion professionals. every school given the flexibility to devise
its own solutions within the guidelines
“The Central government should award framework. Now the biggest challenge before government
‘infrastructure’ category status to all is to prescribe safety protocols for schools after reopening.
education projects and direct banks It should do this with due care and consideration bearing
to grant loans of 30-40 years tenure — the welfare of all stakeholders in mind.” — Rohan Bhat, chair-
against the present tenure of ten years man, Children’s Academy Group of Institutions, Mumbai
— to reduce loan repayment burden
of school managements. Interest on “Shutting down schools and disrupting
these loans should be capped at 6-7 children’s education for long stretches
percent. The BJP government has also of time will not only harm children’s
introduced 18 percent GST on school building rents which learning but also adversely affect their
should be immediately revoked. Moreover, the government mental well-being. Instead of blanket
should waive property tax, bus permit charges, passenger denial of education, government should
tax, insurance payable by schools for one year. All these devise broad guidelines for online
measures will enable private school managements to pass classes and strategise ways and means
on these financial reliefs to parents and reduce school fees.” to ensure equity in online access. Moreover, while framing
— Dr. Vinay Jain, managing trustee, Witty Group of Institu- these guidelines it should consult with education experts.
tions, Mumbai Arbitrary and unilateral decision-making by government is
doing more harm than good. We should bear in mind that in
“When they reopen, all schools should many parts of the world, K-12 education is being effectively
be permitted to introduce a new teach- continued online.” — K.E. Harish, CEO, Sadhbhavana World
ing-learning system incorporating online School, Kozhikode
and offline learning in the ratio 30:70. A
new hybrid learning curriculum should “According to latest neuroscience
be developed to allow schools to ensure research, long gaps in education can
physical distancing. Moreover, online lead to irreparable learning loss in
classes should be small with emphasis children, especially youngest children.
on student-centric learning. All stakeholders need to work in Therefore, the top priority of govern-
cohesion to develop a new system of education delivery to ment should be to maintain continuity
ensure successful co-existence of private and public educa- through online learning. Moreover
tional institutions.” — Dr. Bijaya K. Sahoo, founder-chairman, fees is the only source of revenue for
SAI International Group, Bhubaneswar schools and critical to ensuring timely salary payments to
teachers and staff. Government needs to acknowledge that
“I believe the government needs to hold extensive delibera- private schools are deeply engaged in nation building.” —
tions and discussions with school managements, principals Praveen Raju, founder, Suchitra Academy, Hyderabad

hindra United World College, Pune, ed with progressive offshore examina- Mondiale in Mumbai, Heritage Xpe-
affiliated with the Geneva-based In- tion boards such as the International riential, G.D. Goenka and Pathways in
ternational Baccalaureate school-leav- Baccalaureate and Cambridge Inter- Delhi NCR; Indus International, Jain
ing examination board was licensed to national have sprung up across the International and Inventure Academy
admit its first batch of students from country. Currently, TAISI (The As- in Bangalore — all established in the
12 countries. sociation of International Schools of new millennium — are giving vintage
Since then, especially after the India) has an institutional member- Raj-era day and boarding schools for-
historic liberalisation of the di ri gi ste ship of 150 primary-secondaries with midable competition.
centrally planned economy was sub- an aggregate enrolment of 120,000 Although it is somewhat self-serv-
stantially deregulated in 1991 with the boys and girls. Simultaneously, a ing to say so, a major factor which has
abolition of industrial licensing and sizeable number of new-genre indig- prompted upgradation and contem-
junking of monopolies legislation, a enously promoted, internationally porisation of K-12 education in the
large number of private schools, in- benchmarked schools — Dhirubhai new millennium is introduction of the
cluding international schools affiliat- Ambani International School, Ecole annual EducationWorld India School

42 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2020