The whole nation is right now living in a funny kind of an illusion, which is far from reality. Some claim that the process of unshackling the Indian civilization is on and restoration of temples will now usher in a new phase of progress. How will it happen , no one has the answer ? or rather NO ONE WANTS TO ANSWER.
An IBM Institute study finds that 90% of Indian startups fail within the first five years of inception. Wasn’t it premature on the part of Startup India to pat itself? A Study revealed that Indian startups are less innovative than startups elsewhere, they don’t have an original business idea, most Indian startups are copying what has been successful elsewhere. So, what about millions of loans granted to these start ups ? Remember those days of late 70s and 80s when Loan melas were organized and anyone and everyone was given loan and then loan was waived off making Nationalised banks sick.
Another study by Confederation of Indian Industry revealed that out of 100 applications received from freshers from colleges almost 85 applicants are Not EMPLOYABLE. Out of these 85 almost 60 are not even Trainable. Imagine what kind of Employees our Institutions are churning ?.
Even in terms of applications received for patents we have a very poor record.
The Disparity.
In 2020 after all schools, colleges, and educational institutions in India were shut, due to Corona, it adversely impacted more than 32 crore students across the country. While some schools shifted to online teaching, low-cost private and government schools could not do so. Not only schools but also students studying engineering and medicine had to study ON LINE. What kind of an engineer or a doctor we would be getting who has studied ON LINE ?
During this period A nonprofit, organisation Dream a Dream, conducted a survey with schools in Karnataka, to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on them, the salient aspects of the report are ;
1. Ninety-five percent of the schools wanted to postpone board exams
2. Ninety-two percent of the schools sought reduction of the syllabus for the new academic year
3. Ninety-seven percent of the schools require digital support
Because most of the schools surveyed did not have any experience of teaching online. Many teachers were not trained in handling online classes and as mentioned above, schools were also unable to contact students who have moved back to villages. Therefore, they required help in the form of accessible digital learning solutions and training sessions for teachers.
If this was the situation in a Developed state like Karnataka, imagine what would have happened in UP. Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, MP etc in last 20 months.
The Contrast and Indifference.
The pandemic undeniably has caused the most catastrophic disruption to education in history, world wide. However, in India, despite the disruption, it appears no one seems to be concerned about its grave consequences in years to come. The difference between How the West treats education and how our policy makers treat, is so glaring and saddening that one feels disgusted with the entire system of governance.
Our Policy makers Instead of dispelling fear and giving confidence to people, they are taking an easier route ; diluting the standards, passing every one, not opening the schools, not holding exams and so on.
The education minister of one state said ‘no decision has been taken yet on reopening of schools across the state, and it will be taken once the standard operation procedure (SoP) is finalised by the state paediatric Covid task force.
Instead of sounding positive and setting some dead lines they prefer to be vague.
Another minister of Karnataka said ; he will not hesitate to stop the exams if situation warrants, as if he is threatening the virus.
Another education minster had said a few days ago that ;the school education department will leave it for the guardians to take a call whether they will want their wards studying in classes from nine to eleven to attend in-person classes from November 16, that too after a gap of 20 months. Instaed of setting a time line and encouraging parents to send their children to schools, he is scaring the parents.
Now have a look at what the leaders in west have been saying ;
Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe said ;
It is vital that classroom-based learning continues uninterrupted across the European Region. This is of paramount importance for children’s education, mental health, and social skills, for schools to help equip our children to be happy and productive members of society”,. He further added that. “It will be some time before we can put the pandemic behind us but educating children safely in a physical school setting must remain our primary objective, so we don't rob them of the opportunities they so deserve. We encourage all countries to keep schools open and urge all schools to put in place measures to minimize the risk of COVID-19 and the spread of different variants.” But the students lacked continuity, socializing, collaborative work, the sharing of ideas in real-time, communication without technology. I know that the only way out of this situation is if we keep respecting measures to prevent the transmission of the virus and if we vaccinate all educators.” He further emphasized that ;
Making schools safer is a whole-of-society responsibility.
And the Schools to be among the last places to close and the first to re-open.
US President, Biden made reopening schools a key goal for his presidency and said ;
he wanted a majority of K-8 schools open for full-time, in-person classes by his 100th day in office, at the end of April. The survey, which covered January and, in some cases, February, suggested he’s likely to hit that target. It found 47 percent of schools serving fourth-graders and 46 percent serving eighth-graders were open for full in-person instruction. Overall, 60 percent of fourth-graders and 68 percent of eighth-graders were at home at least part of the school week, either fully remote or in hybrid programs that combine time in the classroom — often just a day or two each week — with distance learning.
The Minister in Germany said ;
It would take time to cope with the consequences of the corona virus but efforts have to be made to keep the schools open and to ensure in-person learning there .
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has ruled out closing of schools before the end of term, despite the fact that some primary schools were forced to close down after suspected outbreaks of Omicron.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced that all schools in England will reopen from March 8,
In England, the latest figures show that 2,36,00 state school students (2.9%) were absent due to covid on 09 Dec, in Wales approx 1.7% were absent between 22 and 26 Nov, in Scotland 2.6 % students were n’t in school on 09 Dec due to covid and this was significantly lower than the peak in Sept when absenteeism was 5.7 % .
Although, Some schools in high infection areas are struggling to stay fully open due to rising Covid rates, according to teachers' leaders.But the British government recently said,it wants schools in England to open as normal in January’22 after the break, and unless guidance changes, that is what should happen.
Education minister Alex Burghart said ; the government was putting measures in place to "make sure that we have the best chance for the start of a normal school term".
The above clearly shows that Britain, a small country with significant numbers of Covid infected patients has kept the schools running.
What are We doing ?
In our country which is now on a heavy dose of religion and history , this lapse , this indifference towards education will lead to grave consequences, particularly when our own education system is not amongst the best.
Any dispassionate reader should be able to grasp the difference.
The astha ki dubki is surely not going to take us anywhere, Yes it may produce a few more Punditjis.
It reminds me of a speech of a yester year Indian leader on the occasion of First Graduation ceremony at IIT Kharagpur in 1954.
“ Here in the place of that Hijli detention camp of British stands this fine monument of India ; IIT Karagpur. This picture seems to me symbolic of changes that are coming to India. Now you are Engineers and this world today...takes shape more and more under the hands of Engineers. The time has now come when the Engineer plays an infinitely greater role than anybody else. In fact, the division between administrator and engineer would gradually fade away because the major work of the country today deals with...engineering schemes of various types. We are building up a new India and the administrator who is completely ignorant of engineering does not help much in administering. This was already true of more technologically developed countries, where "engineers and scientists play a far more important role even outside their sphere of engineering and science." Given the precedent they had set, the Leader concluded, "that is bound to happen in India also."
That leader did what he could do in his life time, But if we now treat education in the manner that it is being treated now, the outcome in years to come will be disastrous.
Besides the Govt, the parents also have a responsibility, they should be more demanding and compel the Govt administrative machinery to open schools and colleges, instead of taking easier approach. It’s a question of the destiny of their children. Lets be very blunt ; The Dubkis are not going to help.