The Academy We Need

Context: Covid-19 crisis brings the opportunity to expand, reimagine, and re-envision the structure and functioning of public universities in terms of autonomy, admission processes, evaluation methods, governance, and merit.

Disadvantages of Online Education 

• Dilution of affirmative action: UGC mandated to shift 25% of teaching online for the future,
• Exacerbate inequalities: with uneven access to technology, learning resources, internet connectivity, and lack of suitable physical space.

• Nullifying the results of Right to Education Act and reservations

• Particular challenges faced by disadvantaged and vulnerable class: like women, students with special needs, financially stressed or less valued higher education and dysfunctional families.

• Need for a range of online resources: for digital framework based asynchronous learning.

• One size fits all approaches: universalizing online education is not feasible for a complex ecosystem of higher education.

• Virtual education as an interim and time taking process: lacks human interactions, committed and competent teachers, proximate classroom space, acceptance of an idea, quizzical articulations, and unmediated communication.

• The academy of imagination stands interrupted: with the absence of co-curricular endeavor, sports field, cultural engagement, life-changing interactions, dialogue and debate, autonomy, freedom, and the tangible lessons in citizenship, bargaining, and coexistence.
• Unpredictable future: in terms of inability to accurately ascertain new skills required for future endeavors.

Way Forward

• Ability to constantly learn and re-learn: a key to navigate the uncertainty of the future.
• Teachers and students as co-learners: partners in knowledge production.
• Revisit teaching pedagogy: for building constructivist pedagogy, and provide greater room to engage with dialogic exploration and rumination.
• Deft and equitous internal mechanisms: for administrators to meet contingencies.
• Acquiring mental and emotional skills: to deal with the disruption and discontinuities.
• Encourage the easy flow of critical thinking: to move beyond “received curricula”.

Conclusion: It’s the right time to learn and teach how to access the gravitas of distilled KNOWledge and distinguish it from NOWledge.