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Expert Comment

Edtech can empower

NEP 2020

ROSHAN GANDHI

HE EDUCATION SECTOR IS ABUZZ WITH analy- Edtech can go a long way towards
ses of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020
released on July 29 to a flurry of excited and disap- enabling India to develop a high-quality
Tpointed commentary nationwide. The new policy education system without waiting for
contains much that is praiseworthy — its forward-thinking
advocacy of holistic, skills-based pedagogies; its progres- policy to catch up
sive mission of achieving foundational language and maths
learning for all children aged 3-8 by 2025; shift from the facilitate them and supplement teaching.
rote-learning examination model; recognition of the vital Simple e-learning content (such as learning videos) can
importance of early-years education, and its renewed em- provide subject knowledge to a child even when the teacher
phasis on teacher standards and training. It also contains cannot, freeing teachers to supervise and facilitate. More
much-needed structural innovation, separating the roles of advanced e-learning platforms are ‘adaptive’, tracking a
government managing public schools and regulating pri- child’s progress, either recommending personalised content
vate schools which has resulted in conflicts of interest that as per a child’s need, or providing information to teachers
have damaged Indian education. about the learning levels of pupils so they can plan lessons
The new policy’s critics, have however, been quick to and assign homework accordingly. Edtech can also provide
spotlight its limitations. In particular, NEP 2020 has little curriculum-mapped content that combines e-learning vid-
to say about how these new revolutionary initiatives will be eos and on-screen quizzes with teacher ‘scripts’ empower-
implemented in practice. Moreover, the policy has missed ing teachers to conduct classes effectively even when they
the opportunity to address deeper structural problems of lack subject knowledge or sufficient skills to prepare lesson
Indian K-12 education that led to emptying government plans.
schools, their absurdly high teacher absenteeism, and the Unaccountable, absent teachers. An estimated 25 per-
3x higher cost-per-child compared to private schools which cent of India’s 9 million teachers are absent from school
also provide better learning outcomes. on any given day, a humongous cohort that rises to 33-45
Simple advocacy of progressive nostrums for education percent in some states. This is a major accountability prob-
won’t solve these deep-rooted problems. Four years in for- lem in desperate need of resolution. Biometric attendance
mulation, NEP 2020 should have addressed the deep-root- machines are tamperproof. With teachers needing to be
ed accountability problems that have allowed this dire situ- marked ‘present’ to draw their full salaries, and biometrics
ation to arise and followed the example of high-performing preventing them from faking attendance records (or from
free-of-charge education systems in other democracies assigning low-paid proxies to attend school in their place),
which fund students instead of schools through voucher there will be a much stronger incentive for teachers to at-
schemes or its variants. tend classes.
While NEP 2020 has done well to project an exciting Edtech can also provide secure, auto-proctored, auto-
education vision for India, it has failed to equip schools with marked examinations built on well-designed question
the basic tools needed to realise this vision. For example, an banks, generating reliable data to review the quality of
advanced curriculum is ineffective without anyone present teachers’ work and hold them accountable for their stu-
to teach it; well-trained teachers are of no use if they are dents’ learning outcomes.
not held accountable for chronic absenteeism. Transform- Lack of information for school choice. Transpar-
ing the policy’s vision into reality will therefore require in- ency about students’ learning outcomes will force schools
novation for lack of structural, policy-driven support for — government and private — to compete to provide qual-
implementation. ity education to retain students, which would be a win-win
Education technology can go a long way towards dis- for all. Here, too, edtech can help. Technology can collate
charging this essential role and enabling India to develop a relevant information from multiple schools in a locality and
high-quality education system without waiting for policy to accurately publish it online, boosting transparency for the
catch up. To understand how edtech can help, the best op- benefit of all.
tion is to list the greatest problems confronting the school- These are but a few examples of how education technol-
ing system and suggest edtech solutions for resolving them. ogy can assist in solving some of India’s biggest education
Poor-quality teachers. With very few teachers passing problems and enable implementation of the progressive
the mandatory Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) — less than recommendations of NEP 2020. I hope others will present
10 percent in several states — and evidence from studies in- more solutions.
dicating that the majority of teachers lack sufficient subject
expertise, India’s school teachers need all the help they can (Roshan Gandhi is director of strategy, City Montessori School, Lucknow
get. Although edtech can never replace the teacher, it can and an international edtech consultant)

32 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2020