ABSTRACT:
One of our founding values is that everyone should have equal access to opportunities. In terms of education, John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, believed that “an environment in which some are constrained would inevitably generate conditions that prevent the full development of even those who fancy they have perfect freedom for unhindered growth.” Another point he argues emphatically is that in order to provide a proper education, one must organically guide a child’s current interests and talents to rationally organised human knowledge. This second item is a measure of educational excellence. Even in the best of circumstances, our educational system was never especially efficient. It has become immensely prejudiced and faulty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online teaching is the major focus of offering learning opportunities while schools are closed. For this goal, the government, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have issued many sets of rules and programmes. Learning schemes, teaching videos, sites and portals for learning opportunities abound on the Internet. In this entire effort of online education and schemes, there are three critical difficulties that must be addressed. One, a worsening of inequity; two, pedagogical concerns leading to poor educational outcomes; and three, an unjustified emphasis on online education following COVID-19.
Exacerbation of inequality:
It is a fact that disasters, whether natural or man-made, disproportionately afflict the poor; COVID-19 is no exception. The misery of millions of migrant workers, many of whom trekked thousands of kilometres at the start of the lockdown, amply demonstrated the argument. Children of the same people are subjected to a comparable but less visible deprivation, which may force the following generation into a position of even greater comparative disadvantage.
There is no significant movement in our society that can give us hope for a better future in terms of equality and social justice. As a result, any positive change that occurs will be the result of individuals’ ability to build capacities and grit. The impoverished have been hit even harder by the COVID-19 closure than their counterparts in the well-to-do portions of society. By the end of August, the government had begun making provisions for pupils who did not have access to the internet. The proposals themselves were the typical glib platitudes that the impoverished are usually served. These ideas presume that children are taught by semiliterate or illiterate parents, that the community is involved, that movable pools are used, and so on. Anyone familiar with rural India will immediately recognise these as fictitious. As a result, any online or digital education that is accessible is only for pupils who have access to the internet. As a result, digital India could become even more uneven and divided than it is now.
Even if one accepts it as a last resort (since ‘something is better than nothing’) and accepts that ‘for some is better than no one’ notwithstanding the concept of equal opportunity, the quality of online teaching-learning leaves a lot to be desired. In its Learning Enhancement Guidelines, or LEG, the NCERT claims that 60-70 per cent of students, instructors, and parents find learning satisfying. However, the survey only includes one question about students’ feelings, based on the criteria of “joyful to burdensome.” Of course, a student’s satisfaction while learning is vital, but it tells nothing about the quantity and depth of learning.
Listening to lectures on a phone, copying from the chalkboard where the teacher is writing, frequent disconnections, and/or blurry video/audio can scarcely and organically connect the child’s current understanding with the logically organised bodies of human knowledge.
There is no emphasis on concepts:
When watching films of math, physics, history, and English language instruction, it’s difficult not to notice flaws. There are numerous misunderstandings and ambiguities in the scientific and mathematics videos, in particular. The emphasis is largely on remembering “tricks” for exam achievement rather than emphasising conceptual knowledge.
Secondary students are still in a better position due to their relative learning independence and potential self-discipline. This method of instruction will provide little benefit to lower elementary students. It can be instructive to look at an example of assumptions in the NCERT’s LEG planning; it is glibly stated that “for a child in grade I, the learning outcome — associates words with pictures — can be easily taught with the use of resources available from or at home, such as newspapers, food packets, things at home, TV programmes, nature, etc.” All that will be required is parental guidance.”
Following COVID-19, the thrust:
For more than three decades, information technology has been portrayed as a forerunner to a revolution in education. However, all reputable research appear to show that information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom enhances already well-functioning systems while having little effect or having a detrimental influence on systems that are underperforming. That does not bode well for the future of IT in our educational system.
“COVID-19 has created a circumstance that needs transformation in school education… the transaction processes in school education may undergo a significant change,” according to the NCERT LEG. As a result, even if the pandemic is finished, its traces will remain, and school curriculum will need to be remodelled….” It is suggested that “alternative means of teaching for the entire academic session be established, including Internet-based, radio, podcast, community radio, IVRS, TV DTH Channels, and so on.”
Institutional environment: When it comes to online teaching, the importance of an institutional setting cannot be overstated. Even when institutions perform poorly, students create an atmosphere in which they can grow ethically, socially, and intellectually through dialogues and interactions with one another. This chance is utterly obliterated by the online teaching approach.
To summarise, our democracy and public education system have, as is customary, abandoned the most vulnerable and are offering poor education to those who matter.
Following the liberalisation of India, Western capitalists saw it as a cheap market of educated labour that could be a feasible choice for customer service and telecommunication. India gained internet connectivity in 1995, and as a result of its rapid growth, educational institutions are scrambling to find a solution for Internet-based examinations by 2020.
In 2020, India will be the largest emerging mobile phone market, accounting for more than 10% of the global smartphone market. According to a report issued by Statista Research Department in March 2020, India has the world’s second-largest internet users, with 560 million, trailing only China.
In 2017, however, only 34% of the overall population had Internet connection. The number also shows a significant gender divide, with approximately 70% of male users and 30% of female users, respectively. The internet penetration and inequality are complicated by an examination of the rural-urban divide in internet usage. Rural India is home to 66 per cent of the country’s population. According to the TRAI data, it only accounts for 25.3 per cent internet density, compared to 34 per cent of the urban population having around 98 per cent internet connection.
When characteristics such as geographic location, economic scale, age density, and caste-based user ratio are considered, this internet separation becomes extremely controversial. As a result, India might be considered a free country in the digital world, despite significant social, material, economic, gender, and geographic exclusion during the growing phase.
Internet speed and other factors:
The performance of the Internet is determined by its speed. According to the Speedtest Global Index’s March 2020 trends, India ranks 130th out of 141 countries, with a download speed of 10.15 Mbps, compared to the global average of 30.47 Mbps. Other South Asian countries, notably Pakistan, trail behind India. There remains an internet speed gap between rural and urban areas, with rural areas still having slower internet access than urban ones.
The internet shutdown is also an essential subject to consider, since the government has conducted internet shutdowns in Kashmir and parts of the North-eastern regions on occasion. The longest Internet blackout in history, which lasted 213 days in Kashmir, was lifted on March 4, 2020, but only with 2G mobile Internet and severe restrictions on the use of websites and social media, allowing for almost no freedom of use.
Digital learning in universities:
There was a significant increase in online readership shortly after the lockdown was announced. People began to look for new ways to read books, essays, and journals. Online classes were introduced in private schools, and homework was distributed via WhatsApp. Private universities, meanwhile, transmitted video lectures to their students, demonstrating that information sharing has no bounds. The UGC Regulation Act of 2016 authorises higher education institutions to give 20 percent of total courses through the online portal SWAYAM. Several public universities, including DU, JNU, BHU, and others, addressed their staff about taking online classes to keep teaching going during the lockdown.
This choice elicited varied reactions, with both praise and criticism. During academic meetings, the problem of end-of-semester online examination proposals was also discussed. Universities are devising new ways to administer the exam and evaluate their students. It is still necessary to establish an agreement between the authorities and the students.
Concerns regarding online classes and examinations:
Various concerns concerning the online medium were voiced as soon as online lessons and lectures began to take place. Its viability was called into question, and its use was suspected. During online lectures, many teachers and students reported being harassed. The internet site held female professors prisoner to online insults ranging from personal messages to harsh comments to visual nudity. “While taking a video class, the chatbox became swamped with vulgar messages, and we were unable to finish the session afterwards,” one of them explained. It was a harrowing experience.”
Why Can’t Online Learning And Exams Be An Option?
The viability of online teaching is a problem. However, there are other difficulties that raise severe questions for university and commission governing authorities who use the internet medium for examinations and classes.
For starters, the sudden announcement of a pan-India lockdown caused widespread agitation because many people were unable to visit their homes. Some people are stranded in the middle, with no resources or an atmosphere that will allow them to study and interact. Many of them sought refuge with the nearest family they could find, but many were unable to leave due to a lack of transportation. When one is not at a right location, it is impossible to study or take a test. Anything like this would put the students under a lot of pressure.
Second, because of the disparity in Internet access, many places are unable to take advantage of this resource. High-altitude states such as Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, and Laddakh still lack adequate internet access. Contrary to government promises, many villages in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh still have limited or no access to electricity; imagine having Internet access to broadcast high-quality live video lectures when you can’t even charge your phone properly. The low speed and frequently disrupted internet service in rural India makes accessibility even more difficult. The majority of students at public colleges come from rural backgrounds, and online learning ignores their concerns in this situation.
Third, due to the caste-based hierarchical system of Hindu social order and the feudal economic system, which resulted in property concentration in a few hands, a large portion of the community, particularly those belonging to the OBC, SC, and ST, are severely disadvantaged in having access to high-end gadget resources such as a good smartphone or laptop that could help them learn and participate in online teaching.
Because of the lower fees, many of them attend public colleges and thus are unable to compete for and own these precious technical resources. Students at universities such as the University of Allahabad, BHU, and others come from low-income families, and some don’t even have smartphones or laptop computers. Any move toward online testing would be casteist and further classist in character, demonstrating urban-centric elite prejudice and minimising legitimate concerns.
Fourth, the pandemic has triggered widespread emotional turmoil. A substantial number of people are exhibiting symptoms of despair, insecurity, and future uncertainty, among other things. Students in cities with more severe occurrences are also terrified. This has a significant impact on learning capacity in a variety of ways, and even with resources available, one cannot get the most out of it. With the protracted lockdown, the fiscal dilemma is also on the road.
Finally, many academic courses cannot be completed entirely online because they require practicals, projects, field work, and other activities. Practicals are required for many courses in the medical and engineering fields, and they cannot complete the course properly without them.
The Constitutional Aspect of Online Learning:
This decision has a constitutional component, which was also highlighted during the shutdown announcement. Given the continuous division and inequality in society, any decision to take online tests and mandatory classes could potentially violate Article 14 of the constitution, which guarantees equality before the law. Any choice to conduct an online examination will have a disproportionate impact on students who, for any of the reasons stated above, are unable to participate in online examinations and learning and must face prejudice.
The Need for Inclusion and Collective Learning:
At a time when over half of the world is on lockdown, and the most advanced nations have failed to combat the virus at its peak, education is the only way out. The paradigm we should strive for is a collaborative, inclusive, anti-hierarchical, non-classist; gender-equal form of knowledge sharing and building that can encompass everyone and serve as a foundation for strengthening the last possible person. Due to practical issues, online study and testing will never be a viable alternative under the moral guiding of collective and inclusive knowledge sharing that universities adhere to.
Universities are one of the few places in the world where the goal is to eliminate existing divisions and inequity while fostering a sense of inclusion on all levels. Rather of making any biased decisions that might capitalise and increase the existing disparities, universities should encourage the filling of these societal divisions. They should provide the example of standing steady, hand in hand, so that no one falls behind in the pursuit of knowledge, just as the world demands togetherness and solidarity in the current pandemic catastrophe. Our societal goals are guided by the way it is established in the constitution.