Page 8 - Education World July 2020

Editorial

CONCEDE SOME GROUND TO BUY TIME struggling to recover lost momentum
after the 68-day national lockdown,
this is not an opportune moment for
HE TROOP SKIRMISHES IN THE Gal- the Indian Army in the 1962 border debilitated India with an annual GDP
wan River Valley sector of the war and even after that by troops pa- of $3 trillion to take arms against PRC
T3,488 km undemarcated India- trolling uncharted territory in sub- with its $14 trillion economy and su-
China border which extends from Ak- zero climatic conditions. perior military capability. Moreover,
sai Chin in the north-west all the way In retrospect it’s shocking that for it’s important to bear in mind that our
to Arunachal Pradesh in the north- over half a century, the Delhi establish- quarrel is with the unelected 100 mil-
east, that resulted in the brutal club- ment adopted an ostrich-like attitude lion-strong Communist Party of Chi-
bing to death of a colonel and 20 men towards the simmering Sino-Indian na (CPC) which lords it over modern
of the Indian Army on June 15, is a border dispute. Astonishingly, since China, rather than with 1.4 billion Chi-
tragic consequence of the egregious the BJP/NDA coalition was swept to nese people with whom we have had
failure of successive governments in power at the Centre in 2014 and again amicable diplomatic and commercial
New Delhi to negotiate a stable border five years later, prime minister Nar- relations for several millennia.
line between the two countries. endra Modi has had 18 one-on-one Therefore, the best option in the
The plain truth is that the People’s confabulations with China’s president national interest is to agree to redraw
Republic of China claims to bits and Xi Jinping. The long-festering border Sino-Indian border lines, even at the
pieces of the disputed border region dispute should have been placed on cost of conceding some ground to buy
are not entirely unmaintainable. It’s the agenda and resolved through ex- time. Simultaneously, we should use
common knowledge that during al- peditious give-take negotiations. our soft power to export freedom and
most two centuries of British rule over Meanwhile despite the 20 Indian democracy to China by making com-
the Indian subcontinent, “unequal lives needlessly lost in the vicinity of mon cause with Hong Kong, Taiwan,
treaties” were forced upon neighbour- hazy line of actual control (LAC) in Japan and the growing pro-democracy
ing countries, including Afghanistan, the Galwan Valley, the national in- movement within China, to block and
Burma and Tibet. Yet, despite Sino- terest demands the latest incident is overthrow the brutal, dictatorial CPC
India bonhomie of the early Nehru- acknowledged as a localised skirmish regime. Its crimes against the hapless
vian years, this opportunity was lost. that flared out of control. At a time Chinese people are far worse than its
The price of this continuous failure when our coronavirus pandemic curve atrocities on the India-China border
has been repeatedly paid in blood by is spiking and the Indian economy is in the north.

NO CASE FOR SCHOOLS CLOSURE EXTENSION measure that could be implemented is
to reduce classroom strength by invit-
ing children to learn from home and
ITH THE UNLOCK 2.0 STRATEGY learning in brick-n-mortar schools attend classes on alternate days, i.e,
of the country announced by which offer the advantages of teacher- three times per week.
Wthe Union government on pupil mentoring and invaluable peer- Inevitably, the blended learning
June 29, it’s now official. All education to-peer learning. Moreover, it’s now education model outlined above will
institutions which have been closed well-accepted that education is more raise the price of learning. As argued at
since mid-March will be obliged to than academic accomplishment, and length in our cover story, middle class
remain shut until July 31. This means should include development of life and elite households need to rework
that children in preschool-class XII skills such as communication and their budgets to pay for better, safer
in north and western India where the reasoned debate capability, teamwork education provided by private schools.
school year begins in April, lose four and social interaction. Every child also Simultaneously, the Central gov-
months of the new academic year, and has the right to holistic education ernment has to take the lead and sub-
children in peninsular India where the which develops her co-curricular and stantially increase its public educa-
academic year begins in June will lose sports and games intelligences. This tion budgetary outlay. The standard
two months. rounded education is best delivered in excuse of paucity of funds has become
Although some wiseacres have sug- traditional classrooms and campuses. paper thin and unacceptable. Your
gested that nothing much will be lost if In the circumstances, the public editors have repeatedly presented
the new academic year is written off as and national interest demand that the the Union government and the Delhi
a gap year for all children, it will be too unprecedented four-month lockdown establishment a detailed calculus
high a price to pay for a nation with of education institutions is not extend- (https://www.educationworld.in/
rock-bottom learning outcomes in ed beyond July 31. The risk of a sub- union-budget-2020-21-small-change-
primary education. There is clear and stantial number of children contract- for-human-capital-development/) on
present danger that tens of millions of ing the coronavirus has to be carefully ways and means to mobilise Rs.8 lakh
pre and primary school children will minimised through strict implemen- crore for investment in developing the
forget what they have learned and will tation of now well-known safety mea- country’s abundant, high-potential but
have to restart learning afresh. sures such as face-masking, frequent long-neglected human resource. The
The consensus of opinion of in- hand washing, regular sanitisation prolonged national education deficit
formed educators is that remote on- of institutional premises and social has to be urgently made good. S i ne
line learning is no substitute for group distancing. An additional child safety q ua non.

8 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2020