Squaring Up To India’s Education Emergency

Context: In making up for months of lost formal learning, there needs to be action on the education, health and livelihood fronts. 

State of Education Emergency in India

     

• India enforced among the strictest, most generalised and continuous school and university closures: According to the global Stringency Index, created by Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, in India, of 503 days, 404 days required the closure of all types of educational institutions.
• Policy gap: Lack of innovation and initiative in the policy sphere resulted in over-centralisation and no vision in implementation of hybrid schooling models.
• Capacity problem: Many studies by NGOs indicated that teachers are unprepared for remote teaching and forward social media links to students.
• Learning losses and socio-emotional stress: The youngest and the poorest among Indian children, Dalits, tribals and others, and lacking devices and electricity, struggled with online classes.
• Universal switch to ‘online’ mode is ineffective: Access to digital tools is only available for a small section.
• Health impacts: Interruptions in child health services, early nutrition and mid-day meals have affected the growth and development of young children.

Way forward: India’s education emergency demands action on the education, health and livelihood fronts.

• Decentralised policy planning and implementation: Focus on every child as an individual. 
• Each school should prepare a safe school opening and child support plan and should receive technical help for this.
• An ‘Education Emergency Room’ should be set up in every district to coordinate, implement and monitor local plans.
• Healthcare interventions: Prioritise vaccination for teachers, develop health and sanitation measures in schools and protocols for public transportation.
• Capacity augmentation: Develop tools to help teachers make quick diagnoses of students’ learning gaps, train teachers to use this as a guide to support children’s recovery, offer additional classes or activities, implement school health and nutrition and develop tools to accompany the educational trajectory of each student.
• Leverage technology: Technology should be deployed safely for such purposes that identify and respond to children’s needs.