DailyPost 1806
EDUCATION / LEARNING / PEDAGOGY – A WATERSHED MOMENT
The euphoria of celebrations takes over everything and with What’sApp University taking over the learning center stage, multimedia celebratory messages have become the sine qua non of our existence. It’s no different for the teacher’s day. Eulogy, adulation and emotions have always taken the better of us. When the structure is known to creak for long, on imminent crashes we feign ignorance and bewilderment. Stocktaking is not our forte. Camouflage as much as we can, is our second skin. We have seen its fate in the health infrastructure of this nation, in the just concluded second COVID-19 second wave. Prayers are what we were left with. It’s time we revisit our educational infrastructure for our own benefit and for the GenNext.
The warning signals were there for long, COVID-19 accentuated it to a level that it can no longer be hidden. We start with the first things first. BYJU’s provides coaching classes from the toddler level itself; does it not smack of some primordial issues with our educational system. Have we reached a stage where coaching has become essential? Which has a secondary existence, the schools or the coaching? Kota has been giving a convincing reply for a long time now. Coaching is essential and with-it school’s curriculum can also happen. From the tuition classes of yesteryears to the iconic coaching of today, there has been a world of difference. These companies; the FIITJIs and BYJUS have become the super educational system of India.
Our regular educational system, the management and teachers behave as if nothing has changed. This is the biggest tragedy. Govt agencies conduct both the CBSE and IIT Entrance Exams at the end of class 12. Why should such a dichotomy exist? That has generated a multibillion dollar industry. Whose interest is getting served, no one knows. We thought earlier that good infrastructure facilitates good quality education. Today, the relationship is inversely proportional. Even the sports facilities so touted are leading to a naught, with the recent Olympic medalists coming out of a different sports infrastructure. How much of B.Ed. curriculum has changed in the last two decades? Does it match with the skills required for a modern age teacher? Has today’s teacher become a tech enabled thinking professional?
COVID-19 brought all the ills to the fore? It forced a revolution in teaching which is still to find roots, while we wish to be back in school. We don’t have an approved online teaching pedagogy for the nation. Zoom classes to Google Forms; find your own way out. The 12th results have made a mockery of the educational system, which was so meticulously guided over the years to its maturity. The teachers love their students so much, internal exams speak out. Whether to laugh or cry on the 95%+ marks, nobody has any idea. Online exams remain an area left to be navigated by Christopher Columbus. Multimedia content of Class 1 to Class 12 still remains a whole world away. If and once ready, one server upload, and access to pre-decided parameters can solve the problem for the nation in one shot. Till such time we can learn about multimedia content from BYJU’s coaching to soching advertisements. Education is at its watershed moment, proactive transformation is the only way out.
TIME OF GIVE SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT TO OUR EDUCATORS AND TEACHERS TO HELP GROOM THE GENNEXT BETTER.
Sanjay Sahay
HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY