Part 8 - Technology Age: Quality Education Race?
Education is "State" subject. So, the responsibility and accountability to ensure quality education rests primarily on the States in collaboration and cooperation with the Central Govt. India's global ranking in education is 32 out of 195 countries. It calls for introspection on what ails education system.
High quality education is vital to exploit "Technology Age" or Digital transformation opportunities. Education liberates intellect, unlocks imagination and is fundamental for self-respect. Most importantly, creative skill development is vital for innovation in the Technology Age. Remember intellect ripens at an early age - by around 16 years. But, the focus continues to remain on "rote learning", colloquially termed as cramming, mostly by teacher-centered method. So, the brain's right hemisphere - creative - growth remains under developed due to dominant exercise of storage parts - cerebellum, hippocampus and amygdala.
There are two schools of thought on quality education. Advocates of traditional education prefer rote learning basic facts and elementary arithmetic. They justify the method on the premise that the recall of repeated material becomes faster the more one repeats. Estimating answers is dependent on strong foundational skills in math's and science based on recall of formulas. So, students resort to "rote learning" in preparation for exams. As per them, learning abstract concepts of mathematics depends on a solid base of knowledge of the tools of the subject. The alternate view is that rote learning is contra mastering any complex subject at an advanced level. So, they recommend that students derive formulas themselves by investigations and inventing alternatives, or justifying more than one correct answer or method to achieve the best understanding - creative thinking.
In retrospect, by the time one qualifies in 12th class, not only learners must acquire strong foundation skills but also develop creative skills so vital for innovation. If so, the educational environment, both in schools and domestic, must enable students to develop appropriate foundation and creative skills. And, it depends on quality teachers, enabling curriculum and positive parenting.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015
The SDG 4 goal is explicit: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". Equitable quality education is considered vital to escape poverty and enable upward socioeconomic mobility - increases incomes and economic growth. Quality education also aids in the reduction of inequities and the attainment of gender equality, as well as the promotion of tolerance and a more peaceful society.
SDG 4 has spelled out 7 targets, 3 means of actual application, and 12 indicators. The 7 targets include: free primary and secondary education; equal access to quality pre-primary education; equal access to affordable technical, vocational and higher education; increase the number of people with relevant skills for financial success; eliminate all discrimination in education; universal literacy and numeracy; and education for sustainable development and global citizenship. The 3 means of application includes: build and upgrade inclusive and safe schools; expand higher education scholarships for developing countries; and, increase the supply of qualified teachers. The Target 4.a.1 indicator focus is on schools to have electricity, Computers and Internet, infrastructure and materials etc.
Understanding what quality means varies between countries. However, most tend to agree on three broad principles: the need for relevance, for equity of access and outcome, and for proper observance of individual rights. UNESCO’s framework on the variables of education quality has five dimensions: 1) learner characteristics including learner aptitude, perseverance, readiness for school, prior knowledge, barriers to learning, and demographic variables; 2) context to include public resources for education, parental support, national standards, labor market demands, socio-cultural and religious factors, peer effects, and time available for schooling and homework; 3) enabling inputs to include teaching and learning materials, physical infrastructure and facilities, and human resources; 4) teaching and learning to including learning time, teaching methods, assessment, and class size; and 5) outcomes to include skills in literacy and numeracy, values, and life skills.
Furthermore, the promotion of quality education is dependent on six basic elements to include: teacher and teaching methods; educational content; learning environment; school management; preconditions for pupils; and funding and organization. The primary goal of quality education is literacy or the ability to read and write - numeracy, life skills and peace education, as well as science and social studies. In retrospect, even after 7-years, India is far away from achieving SDG 4 Goals and targets.
For educational quality and learning outcomes to improve, planners need access to evidence-based analyses of the current situation, trends over time, and information on the strengths and weaknesses of a system, and their causes. A strong monitoring and evaluation system that looks at relevant indicators, such as, measuring the impact of educational reform efforts, teaching quality, the curriculum, and student performance, can provide that evidence. Indicators can help track the progress of strategies and programs within an education sector plan. Also, focus attention on educational subsystems that may require improvement, such as particular districts or levels of education; and, focus attention on key equity indicators, such as the performance of different subgroups such as girls, students living in poverty, or students with disabilities. Indicators of education quality can have meaningful implications for policy by enabling comparisons to be made across time, within different places or contexts, or against standards or global benchmarks such as SDG 4.
Current Initiatives and Policies
After 7-years of UN SDG 4, the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP) has been approved to be implemented entirely by 2025 which is based on four pillars: Access, Equity, Quality, and Accountability. The 10+2 school curriculum framework will be replaced with a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years, respectively. The five features of the NEP 2020 include: schooling to start at 3 years with emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education; promote multilingualism and Indian languages; single regulatory body of higher education; separation between subject streams to be blurred; and the return of the FYUP Program and no more dropouts. Most importantly, the NEP 2020 has directed its focus on mother tongue as the medium of instruction till at least grade five and beyond. Vocational education is to be introduced from Class 6. Also, norms, regulations, accreditation, and academic standards will be the same for both the private and public sectors based on one common entrance exam for higher education. Yet another feature is that one can choose subjects as one would like to study across various streams with multiple exit and entry wherein you can start and end your education allowing you to join back without losing your credits.
Furthermore, "Board Exams" will be in 12th class only. Examination will be held in the semester from 9th to 12th class. Next, the college degree will be 3 or 4 years. A 3 year degree is for those students who do not want to take higher education. Students pursuing higher education will have to do a 4-year degree. That is, certificate in the first year of graduation, diploma in the second year, degree in the third year. Students doing a 4-year degree will be able to do MA in one year. No M Phil. MA students will now be able to do PhD directly.
The Central Government has developed and promoted various initiatives to include: e-Pathshala, DIKSHA, National Repository of Open Educational Resource (NROER), National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), e-pg Pathshala SWAYAM and, SWAYAM-Prabha DTH Channels. The programs have been developed to encourage digital learning, keeping pace with the enthusiasm for technology-enabled learning. Implementing these initiatives is to increase teaching standards regardless of the schools and institutes’ location. They entail provision of relevant school infrastructure, equipment, educational materials and resources, scholarships and quality teaching force.
Current India's Education Status
Of course, "Education for All" has been a popular slogan ever since 1990. As per the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report on school education in India for 2021-22, "Total number of schools in 2021-22 stood at 14.89 lakh as compared to 15,09,136 in 2020-22: 12.59 lakh rural schools and 2.50 lakh schools in urban areas. Also, only 44.85% of schools had computer facilities while nearly 34% had internet connection. Even increased access has not always translated to improved quality of education on completion of primary school.
As of 2018, the number of enrolled students in government schools was 131 million and privately managed schools had 119 million enrolled - one of the largest in the world. Around 26,552,301 join the colleges every year.
As of 18 October 2022, the four types of universities total 1056 universities together. The four types of universities published by the UGC include: State Universities (455); Deemed Universities (126); and Private Universities (421). The state with the most universities is Gujarat with 88 universities. Tamil Nadu has 28 deemed universities. West Bengal has 36 state universities. Delhi has 7 Central Universities - the largest number. There are no public universities in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. As per data in 2020, there were 42,343 colleges. The total of B. Tech colleges is 4151 - out of which 594 are government colleges whereas 3548 are private colleges. At present, A total of 21 IITs, 31 NITs and 25 IIITs are spread across the country. As per NIRF 2022, there are over 45,000 degree colleges, over 1000 universities and around 1500 top institutes.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-21, male literacy in 2021 stands at 84.4% & female literacy stands at 71.5% - male-female gap is 12.9 % points. The gap between male and female literacy is the smallest in Kerala at just 2.2 % points. Andhra Pradesh literacy rate of 66.4% is the lowest among all states, and Kerala ranked highest in the list with 96.2%. Delhi stood second with 88.7%. In 2018, some 773 million adults—two thirds of whom are women—remained illiterate in terms of reading and writing skills.
Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, free and compulsory education is provided as a fundamental right to children aged 6 to 14. The approximate ratio of public schools to private schools in India is 7:5. Only 3 states provide free education up to 8th class in government schools only - Telangana, Punjab and Karnataka. Telangana has announced free education for girls from kindergarten to post-graduation in public institutions, and Punjab has extended the scheme until PhD. However, Kendriya Vidyalas, Army Public Schools, and even Hyderabad Public School charge hefty fees. However, in no State, private schools provide free education except in 16 States and UTs where private unaided schools admit students from disadvantaged groups and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) without charging a fee.
The quality of education imparted in government schools, specifically in rural areas, is poor. It is due to the lack of quality teachers and technology advancement. Tamil Nadu rank is 27th in the country in providing quality education. Recently, Madras HC Justice S.M. Subramaniam observed “State of Tamil Nadu is in need of quality education to be imparted to the children/students in schools and colleges. He directed the State government to revisit the service rules related to appointment and promotion of government school teachers within three months. He also directed on avoiding appointment of those who had secured degrees through distance education or correspondence mode.
Education Reforms
None can deny that the NEP 2020 addresses the key issues outlined in SDG 4. Nonetheless, there is a need to review the status of implementation of the NEP from the view point of six necessary components to achieve reforms: 1) determine benchmarks and benchmark-based assessments - where the education system stands currently and what improvements are necessary to reach NEP 2020 goals; 2) autonomy through empowering schools - give them ownership, resources, and voice while enhancing school competitiveness; 3) accountability shifting decision-making authority from the government to the community represented by school governing boards and integrated by teachers, parents, and community members; 4) good teachers – one that adds value to the learning process and to improve their learning outcomes; 5) early childhood development may be the most cost-effective educational investment; and 6) culture is important - using mother tongues as the language of instruction have higher attendance and promotion rates, and lower repetition and dropout rates. Students learn their national language by the end of basic education if they become literate in their mother tongue.
What Is the Best Method of Teaching?
There are 9 instruction methods of classroom conduct: 1) Teacher-Centered Instruction; 2) Small Group Instruction; 3) Student-Centered/
There is no “best” method of teaching. However, many researchers today agree that using only a teacher-centered approach leaves out many skills and learning opportunities for students. Yet, there may still be space for teacher-centered learning for some specific topics and learning objectives. So, teacher-centered learning shouldn’t be the only strategy. On the contrary, including more student-centered learning approaches in the classroom can improve learning. The bottom line is that each teacher needs to find a teaching style that is most appropriate to learners' capabilities.
Today, the Montessori Method is most popular in preschools, kindergartens, and lower elementary grades. In this method, the teacher prepares an ideal classroom environment full of activities that children may pick from to work on. Moreover, the teacher guides the children to ensure that they choose an adequate number of lessons from all of the subject areas. The Montessori Method encourages the use of “materials” designed for learning. Furthermore, the curriculum teaches social skills and practical life skills, such as cooking and cleaning.
Next, the teacher-centered methodology is a conventional approach that is based on the idea that the teacher has the main responsibility in the learning environment. Next, "Small Group Instruction" allow teachers to work more closely with each student on a specific learning objective, reinforce skills learned in whole group instruction, and check for student understanding.
The rest of the approaches are considered to be student-centered or constructivist, which has become more popular. Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions places more responsibility and ownership instead of the teacher. Also, teachers must change their leadership style from directive to consultative. Even project-based learning falls within the student-centered approach.
Delivering online lectures that students can view from home to substitute lecturing in the classroom is known as flipped learning. FLIP represents the four pillars included in this type of learning: Flexible environment, Learning culture shift, Intentional content, and Professional educator. This technique allows for more time in class to be devoted to active learning rather than instruction.
Next, cooperative learning involves a lot of group work. It requires a lot of structure and intervention on the part of the teacher to make learning as effective as possible. Finally, personalized education takes the student-centered approach to a new level by, as much as possible, responding to each individual learner’s unique needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Through individualized instruction, learning is tailored to the student. It provides numerous and yet-to-be-discovered advantages.
Overview
On paper, the NEP 2020 has followed the prescriptions outlined in the SDG 4. The NEP 2020 has set all targets to be achieved by 2025 based on "Access, Equity, Quality, and Accountability." The ground realities, after nearly 3-years, mercilessly expose the failures and shortcomings at all levels. None of the targets defined in the SDG 4 have been implemented except for a few educational institutions:
· Yet to create a single regulatory body of higher education. Monitoring-cum-feedback system yet to be formalized.
· No equal access to quality free pre-primary education, primary and secondary education in private schools and also few public schools. Universal literacy and numeracy??????
· Equal access to affordable technical, vocational and higher education is still a distant prospect.
· Yet to build and upgrade inclusive and safe schools with adequate infrastructure like class rooms, library, electricity, computers and internet, drinking water facility, toilets etc.
· Inadequate availability of quality teachers at all levels who have expertise to apply appropriate teaching methods. Teacher's career up gradation on a regular basis.
· No community-cum-Principal centric decentralization of responsibility and accountability.
· Application of Montessori approach at Foundation level, particularly in rural schools.
· Non implementation of exams system based on "Semesters" from 9th to 12th class. Stop conducting 10th class Board Exams. Hold common Board exams for 12th class.
· Yet to commence 3-year and 4-year degree courses; and abolish M Phil course.
To sum up, total system overhaul is a vital imperative to provide quality education so vital for innovation in the Technology Age with digitization sweeping mankind. The Central and State governments need to collaborate and cooperate to successfully implement SDG goals at least by 2030.
Article by G B Reddy Sir
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