New Year And Education

The new year has started with a bang; as always, many of us would have promised many new things to do during the year. We, as teachers have only one thing in focus: the well-being of our children. It is not only what we do but also what impact the government policy and the parent’s expectations would have on the kids is also an important area to be kept in mind while having any resolution written for the year. Somebody rightly mentioned that before you plan for the future, you must walk through the year gone by. Though our academic session is from April to March, deciding in advance is key to success.

The last week of the year 2022 was spent by us in an Asian country not so much talked about-Malaysia, which we visited as part of every year’s teachers’ tours to different places. This was not the first choice but once we were there, we realized that this was one of the best choices. During our stay there for about six-seven days we found the discipline and pride in the culture of the country at the best. I would not talk about the place we visited or the food we ate but more about the educational and medical facilities in the country. Our guide Mr Daljit Singh is a Malaysian citizen whose grandfather migrated from India to Malaysia when the Britishers were required to appoint people in the police. Malaysia got independence in 1963 and started developing after 1990. When our guide told us about his country, he mentioned the education system, which was a pleasant surprise because not all guides talk about their country's education. The system in Malaysia is almost the same as in India and the country appears to be doing well. The economy of the country mainly depends upon rubber, palm oil and now natural gas. We did not have a chance to visit any school or university but whatever we observed on the streets and in the markets, I presume that they emphasize and religiously practice values. When we returned to our country, I thought of the schools, colleges and universities in our country which were established after independence, almost 16 years before Malaysia got independence. Meanwhile, UGC came out with a draft to allow foreign universities to open their campuses in India. Though I could not go through the details of the draft, but articles by Mr Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Ms Anamika caught my attention. Mr Mehta has analyzed it so well and after reading the same, I realized that well-intended proposals may fall into the same category as many great initiatives before. In the same newspaper, the Chairman of UGC also wrote with confidence and pride that highly reputed foreign universities would be interested in setting up their centres in India. But the questions asked by Mr Mehta are pertinent and the government must work on the same. Ms Anamika, an associate professor at IILM university raises almost similar points though she seems to be more optimistic than him. Mr Mehta talked about almost nine issues but there are four out of them that is really a concern for everyone. The first question is why would any top university (top 500 hundred in the world) come to India when they do not have any campus in most of the liberal nations where administrative setup is the facilitator and not the regulator? The second issue is related to the funds and the infrastructure. The draft says that it has to be created by the institutes. Again the question is that in places like Dubai, a knowledge park has been created and dedicated for foreign universities to run their courses and still so-called best of the universities did not open any campus there. The third issue is that in India, there is a system of not-for-profit-running educational institutes (though this is on paper as the institutes find their way otherwise). As per the existing norms whatever excess income is earned by the university (even the schools) needs to be invested for further growth of the same. But as per the draft, foreign universities can repatriate the money to their home country. What is this money, is this not the profit? The fourth point is raised regarding the autonomy of these institutes. The top educational institutions give freedom to their faculty to develop their own curriculum, but again UGC has its set of standardized norms for qualification, curriculum to be taught and even the common entrance test( now CUET) for admission to higher educational institutes. The fifth point is that, will it not make our public institutions feel inferior. Why did our government not try to encourage NRIs and other investors of Indian origin to invest in the country's education field? I am of the firm opinion that nobody will do anything for you unless you do not do a lot for yourself. So the government need to encourage private Indian universities to get the same benefits as the foreign universities are being offered. It should not happen so that in the name of foreign institutions we get second/third-grade stuff to further deteriorate the quality of education. The UGC should seek the opinion of intellectuals with an open mind without any prejudices towards any individual who gives contrary views.

You must be wondering why I started with Malaysia and focused more on just a draft. The reason is that any action taken or initiated does not impact the present but the future generations and education is the key to the prosperity and growth of any nation. As this draft is based on the recommendations of NEP 2020 so my concern is what is being done for the elementary and secondary education of this country. The coaching institutes that have destroyed education are being allowed to flourish at the cost of the middle-class and lower-class parents' hard-earned money. I did not want to bring up this topic again because we have already discussed it in detail before but a few actions of the responsible people disturb us to the core. Here I would like to bring forth two incidents- the Honourable Education Minister of the country was with the tutors/coaches of a coaching centre in a so-called education city of the country on the last teachers` day and some months later the chief of state police got 50% fee waiver for the children of the personnel of his department after talking to so-called educationists in the same city. I am not questioning their presence or expectation but the problem is that it sends the wrong signal as if the government is promoting such centres. It would have been nice if the Honourable Minister had celebrated the teacher’s day with the teachers of the government schools and the police Chief would have encouraged the teachers of such schools to provide extra help to the police personnel’s children. I am saying this based on a report published this month(Jan) by ACER, an NGO which conducts a survey on school education every year (in 2022 it took place after a gap of 4 years due to the pandemic). The schools in our country remained closed for the longest period compared to many other countries and it had an impact on the children's learning outcomes. ACER could manage to conduct the survey in three states in the year 2021 (Karnataka in Feb, Chhattisgarh in Oct and West Bengal in Dec). The learning loss & gaps observed were high in these states both in reading and arithmetic. I would like to mention that learning had been rising consistently from the year 2014 to 2018 and prior to that they were steady almost at one level. In reading, at the national level, there is a drop of 7 per cent (from 27.2 in 2018 to 20.5 in 2022). There is a drop-in numeracy learning level also but not as sharp as in reading (around 2-2.5 %). This shows that the children still could manage to continue learning numeracy but language suffered the most as most of them were not able to interact with their teachers. As per ACER report out of the three states which could be surveyed in 2021, the improvement could be seen because the drop in learning level was smaller in those states where the schools reopened earlier and the government’s focus was more in comparison to the other states. Another positive aspect is the return of the majority of the students are back in school. The fear was that due to inflation and cuts in jobs (and also the migration of the parents during covid), the enrolment will drop. The ACER report does talk about NEP 2020 implementation and the introduction of FLN (foundational literacy and numeracy). The NIPUN Bharat mission (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading and Understanding Numeracy) would have been one of the factors responsible for the quick regain of knowledge by the students in pre-primary and primary classes. Many states have taken initiative to implement the same sincerely and others would have to do the same soon. The government would have to ensure that this is done by all the states at the earliest so that our children are able to make up for the loss as fast as possible. So all stakeholders must come together and ensure that our education system becomes self-sufficient and really live up to the slogan of Atm Nirbhar Bharat in the field of education also.

If school education is not given its due, then no foreign university would be able to make any difference. So the government must come out with a concrete plan and a roadmap for school education and NEP implementation for the benefit of all. The growth in enrolment of children in schools (especially the girls) is an encouraging sign, as even the lower socio-economic groups also realize the value of education, so this is the right time for the central government to pitch in and ask all states to do their best. Quality life would be a dream without quality education.  Not-so-developed countries like Malaysia as I mentioned in the beginning, value education is so predominant that even the guide takes pride in explaining the same to tourists from other countries. Our NEP document is an excellent document and guides us to progress in the field of education, so our resolution for the year 2023 should be to get the best out of this and make learning more enjoyable and sustainable. Wishing all my readers a happy learning year.