Improving the education standard for students impacted due to COVID-19

One of the main sectors that faced a paradigm shift because of the COVID pandemic is the Education sector. We believe that the following problems hinder the education of students and especially that of primary and middle school students.

This pandemic can delay our nation’s educational aspirations by decades if not handled properly. With India being one of the 135 countries in the world where the “Right to Education” law is present (meaning, the onus is on the government, not the parents, to provide education to the children) our government should take proactive measures to prevent school dropouts and to improve the quality of online education.

Hence, we want you all to sign the petition so that more attention is brought to this issue and systemic changes can be brought to the Indian education system.

 

Government and Private Schools during COVID-19

According to Oxfam Survey conducted across five states Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh, incorporating the responses of over 488 government schoolteachers:

Fee Structure:

Around 39 per cent of parents in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh had to pay hiked fees for the upcoming academic year.

Uttar Pradesh government had asked schools not to hike fees. Around 50 per cent of parents reported having paid hiked fees.

In Odisha, around 50 per cent of parents had to pay for uniforms, despite massive resistance.

Teachers:

Only 20 per cent of teachers of government schools were trained for delivering classes online.

Of the 20 per cent of government school students who received education during the lockdown, around 75 per cent remained dependent on WhatsApp, while 38 per cent remained dependent on telephone calls with teachers for continued education.

Two out of every five government schoolteachers did not have the devices required to deliver education online.

Access to facilities:

80 per cent of parents said they faced challenges in online education. The most problematic issue is 23% not having any device, while 18% did not have access to the internet. In addition, 53% faced internet speed issues, and 32% found it difficult to pay for the data.

Midday meals:

Despite the Supreme Court’s order asking states to ensure the supply of midday meals to students of shut schools, only 65 per cent of students in all five states received meals, with over 92 per cent of children in UP saying that they were deprived of the same.

Screen time:

A significant paradigm shift can be seen in education because of the COVID pandemic. With most schools conducting classes online, screen time for children has become a significant issue. Even in the presence of Digital Education guidelines from MHRD, Department of School Education and Literacy that suggests a maximum screen time of 90 min per day to ensure better health, schools are said to be holding about 4 hours of classes per day, even for primary school children. Such lax implementation of MHRD guidelines by the state governments is doing more harm to the children. It increases the stress on the children and parents with additional subjects being taught online.

Student-teacher ratio:

India has a primary student-teacher ratio of 26.5, which is one of the highest in the world. As per OECD data, Countries like Greece and Luxembourg have a ratio of less than 10. These numbers depict the worse condition where there are insufficient teachers, and the teachers present are overburdened with having to teach a higher number of students. Experts point out that this is poor recruiting of teachers in the past years and incorrect teacher posting policy adopted by different states in the country. With the COVID pandemic, the burden on teachers has been increased multi-fold. In a UDISE+ report, Delhi has 55,486 primary teachers for 18,11,723 students, which is one of the lowest in the country.

Dropout Prevention:

A UN report says that at least 24 million children worldwide are expected to drop out of schools due to pandemic-related reasons. Based on our primary research (interactions with teachers), the dropout rates have increased post-pandemic. With limited access to the internet and limited resources like phones and laptops for accessing online classes, late bloomers who did not have much interest in pursuing education are beginning to drop out. This is increasing significantly among underprivileged communities where the parents have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The families think that online education will not be beneficial for their children, given the inefficiencies in government schools to switch to online mode. Instead, they prefer to earn some money for daily bread-winning if their children go for daily labour. They chose petrol bunk labour, food and e-commerce delivery, factory work, and any manual labour where no prior experience is required. These are primarily jobs that will not help in the long run as a career. Few students (high school level) go for part-time work and attend classes online from the workplace to continue education. Many others have switched to schools of lower levels (in terms of quality and infrastructure) to save on the fees.

 

Our Recommendations:

1.     The state government should strengthen the enforcement around fee hikes and penalize the schools that don’t follow the state orders.

2.     Provide laptops to teachers. Set up multiple assistance centers to help with online technical issues.

3.     Arrange an online teaching technology infrastructure within the school wherein the teachers can teach from the class itself.

4.     Home delivery of cooked meals/dry rations under the midday meal scheme.

5.     A more robust implementation of MHRD guidelines in government and private schools regarding limited screen time for children. Especially for pre-primary and primary school children as they are the most vulnerable.

6.     We recommend that the government increase the hiring of permanent teachers and adopt an efficient posting policy that would ensure a better student-teacher ratio.

7.     Government should also conduct proper audits and issue guidelines regarding the ideal student-teacher ratio.

8.     Free Internet (1 GB/Day) to students

9.     Free Joining back for dropped out students (without TC & other bureaucratic hindrances) (Already implemented by Tamil Nadu Government)

10.  Remedial Online Recorded Classes for catch-up (Maths & Science)

11.  Follow-ups for every dropped-out student (by school principal) & remedial action to be mandated

12.  White Paper by the government on the trend of dropout rates pre-and post-pandemic and Plan of Action.

 

References:

1.      S. (2021, June 23). Shivakaminathan. dtNext.in. https://www.dtnext.in/News/TopNews/2021/06/23063236/1302519/TC-not-mandatory-for-admissions-to-govt-schools.vpf

2.      Indicator D2. What is the student-teacher ratio and how big are classes? | Education at a Glance 2020 : OECD Indicators | OECD iLibrary. (2021). OECD Library. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/315d95e6-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/315d95e6-en

3.      Ibrar, M. (2021, July 4). In primary, Delhi does not have enough teachers. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/in-primary-delhi-does-not-have-enough-teachers/articleshow/84102266.cms

4.      Staff, F. P. (2020, August 10). From limiting screen time to number of classes per day, HRD ministry issues guidelines for online education. Firstpost. https://www.firstpost.com/india/from-limiting-screen-time-to-number-of-classes-per-day-hrd-ministry-issues-guidelines-for-online-education-8689841.html

5.      T. (2021, June 26). Telangana: Parents against increased screen time for online classes. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/parents-against-increased-screen-time-for-online-classes/articleshow/83855150.cms

6.      Correspondent, S. (2020, August 4). 24 million may drop out of school due to COVID-19 impact: U.N. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/covid-19-pandemic-created-largest-disruption-of-education-in-history-un/article32265660.ece

7.     Rozario, A. S. (2020, September 16). No Education for 80% Govt School Students Since Lockdown: Survey. TheQuint. https://www.thequint.com/news/education/no-online-class-for-80-government-school-students-oxfam-india-survey

 

Petition by 2nd-year IIM Ahmedabad Students:

Hrishikesh Baviskar

M Harish Kumar

Ponnarasu K