The pandemic has spurred new thoughts on the future of school education. Online is the way to go, many experts suggest. It would eliminate the need for elaborate physical infrastructure, and thus be less expensive. It would make quality education available to all. With children from all strata of the society accessing similar content and facing similar tests, the playing field would be more level. Education, they argue, would thus be more egalitarian and democratic. The difference between so-called inferior schools and superior schools, basically a class and vanity construct, would disappear. Government school students need not be branded as dimwits compared to counterparts in private schools.
Not a bad idea at all.
Of course, the success of the online model would depend heavily on internet connectivity, quality data service and assured electricity. This is not a challenge that could not be overcome. Those who are apprehensive that online schooling would deprive students of the school ambience, thus hindering their personality growth, and those without the right study environment at home would be at a disadvantage, should not worry much. Online doesn’t necessarily mean study at home. While their apprehensions are valid, there could be a way out. Technology is flexibile. There has to be a will to begin with, the rest would follow.
Let’s face it. Our education system has been a sham and a scam for most part. It has made good education — whether our good is good enough is debatable though — a preserve of the privileged. Most private schools are simple profit-oriented business enterprises, more concerned about their balance sheets than intellectual growth of students. Since they have to flaunt success for good advertisement, many draw a line between students, focussing only on the lot who would potentially rank high in common exams and abandoning those branded laggards to their fate. They are not even secretive about it. This is a betrayal of the trust of parents, who invest a lot besides money to put their wards in reputed schools. The dismal quality of learning offered by most government schools, of course, need no overstating. They are the reason why private schools have flourished exponentially in the first place.
The pandemic has thrown an opportunity at us to reimagine education, both in terms of broad-basing and quality. Before children are asked to rush back to schools, packed in buses or rickshaws and heavy bags straining their spines, after the COVID-19 threat blows over, we need to give it a serious thought.
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SCHOOLS VS SCHOOLS
Let’s come to the point with a question: Why are our government schools, well most of them, so bad? The blunt answer to this is: It is a conspiracy. If government schools were allowed to deliver to their full potential then the money-spinning idea of private schools could not have taken off. The degeneration of government schools coincides with the rise of the latter. It is not difficult to understand why. The entrepreneurs in education included politicians and businessmen, and politician-cum-businessmen. They had vested interests in keeping quality in short supply in schools run by the government. Private schools promised — promised, not necessarily delivered — to fill the gap.
Here’s a clarification. Not all private schools are profit-hungry establishments and as a concept entrepreneural ventures in education is not bad at all. Running them down would be denying the critical load they bear in the education sector. Yet they are more an exceptions than rule in an industry that is more keen on fleecing parents and duping students. The fact that parents trust them more than government-run schools is a sad statement on the latter.
Online education can change the equation. And now is the right time for it. A centralised teaching system would ensure uniformity of content, teaching standards and general quality. Online education would help students in remote places who travel great distances to reach schools and poor parents who can’t afford physical study material. For governments used to handling devastating natural disasters, this should not be much of a challenge. But it has to begin with a will — the will to change the status quo between different sets of schools.
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THE BEAUTY OF THE SYSTEM
The arrangement was simple, and not bereft of irony.
More than a decade ago, the educationist uncle one knows from childhood days was in the horns of a dilemma. His wife, a teacher, had been transferred to a rural school, about 25 km away from her earlier school barely a km away from home. Though well-connected to the city, the shift meant she would have less time for household chores. It also meant loss of money she brought home from tuition classes. Since the transfer had the government’s stamp of approval not much could be done to change that. Quitting the job was not an option. So he had to find a way out. Being an educationist with decent knowledge of the dirty dynamics of the system, he hit upon a brilliant solution.
That brings us to the ‘arrangement’. During a private meeting with the headmaster of the school, amid a healthy discussion on how the education system had gone to dogs, he broached a money-sharing proposal. It went like this: Aunty would come to the school twice a month. The headmaster would take care of her attendance, but at a price. He would collect 40 per cent of her monthly salary. It was a tough negotiation but finally a win-win for both sides. She ‘served’ for 15 long years and was even recommended once for an award for meritorious service. Retired for many years now, she still has fond memories of her teaching days in the school.
Does such practice continue? Hard to answer that. Probably it does, given the ‘system’ is still the same. Online education could be a solution to such hanky-panky. It would at least ensure students receive good, uninterrupted education, away from the shenanigans of adults.
A GOOD TEACHER IS FOREVER
Nothing can replace a good teacher. S/he will be a life-long hero for students. And no technology can replace the easy informality and warmth of human interaction. The school ambience shapes personalities and builds enduring relationships. This truth cannot be altered either. However, ‘good’ is the operative word here. Not all teachers or schools fit into that description.
Investigating the reason behind the abysmal failiure rate in English in school examinations a few years ago, the then Education Minister of Punjab, Daljit Singh Cheema, was shocked to find that some teachers lacked the basic knowledge of the language. In their separate reports to the ministry citing reasons for the poor performance, teachers mentioned ‘leak of interest’ among students and ‘our school has situated remote area’. ‘English are international language’ said one teacher, according to a news report. Asked to explain, he said he had forgotten his glasses.
Things have changed a lot in the state after the government’s active intervention. But would similar investigation bring out similar results in other states too? Probably yes. The problem, however, has to do with the entire system, not teachers only. Online education could be a way out.
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[Disclaimer: The views expressed by the writer are his own and do not necessarily represent that of the website]
