Page 91 - EW JAN 2022

Teacher-2-Teacher

Don’t abandon pandemic

era upsides

REVATHI SRINIVASAN

N MARCH 2020, SCHOOLS IN INDIA AND world- Teachers and institutional managements
wide came to an abrupt halt because of the spread of
the Covid-19 pandemic. Surprisingly despite the mas- need to be vigilant that valuable gains of
Isive disruption, quite a number of schools managed the pandemic era – supplementary and
to cope well, taking teachers, students and parents on an
online adventure! As with most adventures, there were explanatory education through digital
teething troubles but eventually things settled down. media – aren’t lost
Children’s return to school campuses is likely to be
phased and will be driven by local government regula-
tions and parental preferences. Meanwhile, teachers and in primary-secondary education. Teachers and institu-
administrators should reflect upon frequency (daily or tional managements need to be vigilant that valuable
alternate days) and embrace and improve the blended gains of the pandemic era — supplementary and explana-
learning model — an amalgam of in-class and digital edu- tory education through digital media — aren’t lost.
cation — that’s here to stay. If school managements build With the spurt and improvement of Internet con-
a consensus with parents, students and teachers being on nectivity, high quality content from around the world
the same page, the learning loss of the past 60-64 weeks available on Moocs and digital online platforms can be
when schools were shuttered can be quickly remedied. incorporated into institutional teaching-learning pro-
I have always trusted teachers to be the best judges of grammes. For instance, through our Singhania Education
situations at school. Going forward, they need to manage Services, we have created our own holistic learning app,
in-person and virtual teaching with equal intensity and Singhania Quest+. This app enables learners to supple-
rigour. ment classroom teaching with detailed videos explaining
The past 18 months have given educators (and par- concepts and content that provides deeper understanding
ents) a good idea of how thousands of teachers responded of a subject and enables continuous self-testing.
creatively to the prolonged closure of schools during ost bona fide educators are aware that grouping stu-
the pandemic. Driven by creativity, sense of purpose, Mdents by age is unlikely to fulfill the peculiar learning
skill and positive mindsets, a minority of teachers were needs of every child. The main benefit of digital or asyn-
motivated to do the extraordinary. Yet today, we have to chronous learning is that it addresses this problem and
re-think what students have missed in online classes and enables children to learn at their own pace. If we group
bridge the gaps. We need to double down on learning-by- students based on their demonstrated capabilities, they
doing in the form of hands-on experiences/experimen- will progress by peer learning. Another benefit of the digi-
tal lab work, collaborative activities and sports during tal learning revolution is that it has enabled teachers to
the initial months of resumed in-school classes. School play the role of motivators who encourage self-learning.
managements have to be flexible about allowing online The Synthesis School in the US, which builds on peda-
students to join sports sessions and engaging them to ad- gogy developed by technopreneur Elon Musk’s Ad Astra
dress soft skills gaps. School, encourages self-learning through simulations.
Pedagogy, assessment, and the daily routine are all Learners joyfully solve problems of movie studios, tamp
critical for enriching children’s learning experiences. out wildfires, colonise space, collect art etc. Comments
Teachers have to re-design assessments and focus on edupreneur A.L. Fabrega, promoter-director of Synthesis
long-term projects, internships and in-depth research School: “In school, we learn ‘just in case’ from a fixed
rather than grades. The post-pandemic era requires curriculum in the hope that it will include something
schools where children focus on learning-by-doing. As- that will be useful later. In real life, we learn ‘on demand’
signments and projects must be aligned to real world when it best suits our needs, interests and styles.”
challenges to which young students should apply their Ultimately, my advice to fellow educators is simple:
minds. The priority should be to encourage our students Try something new! Every crisis stimulates innovation
to create, invent, discover, and collaborate. “Don’t just and provides an opportunity to challenge the status quo
consume things, create things,” advises former US presi- and build a new paradigm. Modern education has come
dent Barack Obama. a long way from the ‘factory schools’ of 19th century
However, care needs to be taken that the gradual — Prussia. Let’s use the pandemic disruption to rethink and
perhaps too gradual — return to on-campus learning devise new ways and means to combine traditional and
doesn’t result in abandonment of the many upsides of digital education to accelerate improved learning out-
online education that school managements have ex- comes.
perienced, even if unwittingly. The hybrid or blended (Dr. Revathi Srinivasan is Director-Education & principal, Smt. Sulo-
teaching-learning model is certain to become normative chanadevi Singhania School, Thane)

90 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2022