In the great study of the contrasts India presents, there is a fundamental level of failure among our majority versus our success with higher education for some. Corrective gains in school enrollment, thanks to the lure of mid-day meals, were largely due to a disproportionate increase in real learning outcomes, but COVID has disrupted education for all in a way that has no parallel. If this is not taken care of, it can even impose a tripwire for economic expansion beyond a point. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for 2021 by Pratham, a non-profit organization, the last year saw a dramatic shift of students in the age group 5-16 from private to government schools in rural India. The drop in nominees in the last year marked the end of a long pre-Covid trend, but while 2020 was mostly about dropouts, it is about switchovers. A large number of private set-ups could not survive the pandemic, even as millions of household budgets became too thin to cover private fee bills and some families moved to their native villages. As reported, state-run schools run online classes more reliably than private schools in rural areas. Overall, the experience of the last 18 months has underscored the importance of education as a provision of the state.
Children are slowly going back to their old classes after a long gap, during which time access to the Internet was minimal for any formal instruction. The impact on this identifies a mixed benefit. Its survey of more than 75,000 households using phone calls this September and October found that two-thirds of all rural school-goers had at least one smartphone at home this year, up from nearly half last year. was 62%. 36.5% back in 2018. However, about a quarter of them still had no access. In homes lacking digital devices, students in higher classes usually have priority over students in younger classes, so the benefits of the facility were not spread evenly. There was a boom in the use of paid tuition classes to supplement regular schooling, as identified by the ASER. Overall, the report paints a picture of a rural area where parents are keen to educate their children against a veritable maze of odds. While the online module was deployed for home study, anecdotal evidence suggests that the required back-up study material was either missing or of poor quality.
Qualitatively, the academic setback inflicted by the COVID pandemic has been severe. Almost exclusively, the learning process in the early years is prone to slide-back. This exacerbates the deficiencies caused by an extended break and makes remedial action both necessary and difficult. Students have suffered to varying degrees, teachers are now struggling to keep pace with them, but the other side of our digital divide has suffered. It has been found that junior school children have lost elementary skills. As a result, we are seeing a huge gap in the capabilities of the next generation right now. We must invest heavily in public education to address this, establish a pan-India recovery plan for lost education, and avert its potential consequences for the next decade and beyond. For a very long time, the Center and the states had a meager allocation for education. We need to drastically increase the public outlay and upgrade our schools. This is an essential thing. If we do not broaden our ability to generate value, our economy risks slipping into a ‘middle-income trap’ at some stage when the markets serving the upper slab of our pyramid hit saturation. and become stable. Let’s not risk it. No child left.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint.
download
Our App Now!!
,