By Fr Zeferino D’Souza
Coronavirus has affected all the nations in the world, and has changed the lifestyle of all the people in each and every sphere of life, including education.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
COVID-19 has taken each and every person, all business organisations, all the economies, all the governments, all the leaders and all the most powerful and leading nations in the universe, all the scientists, all the powerful economies in the world, all the thinkers, etc by surprise and it looks like that all the efforts to remedy the situation are bearing very negligible results.
There is no doubt that all the strata of life are adversely affected and practically our normal life has been paralysed. Instead what we hear every day is “lockdown”, standard operating procedure (SOPs) are being issued and modified accordingly, etc. The need of the hour to ensure one’s safety is to take precautions and that is the order of our daily routine.
It appears that there is no direction for our lives in the midst of uncertainties, apprehensions and no forthcoming remedies faced with the spike of positive cases and local or community transmission.
Though there is all round concern and the authorities, leaders and responsible frontline workers are working hard round the clock I would like to concentrate myself on Educational Arena which has been directly affected and is in a state of confusion.
My scope of reflection will be our country and the field of education which is a concern for all of us and which is very significant for the progress of the nation and the development of the humankind.
In the midst of uncertainties and unpreparedness, decisions taken had to be changed, modified and many could not be implemented at all.
One of the important decisions taken in a hurried state was Online Teaching–Learning. If Online Teaching-Learning appears to be the future of Education during and post pandemic, it needs to be dealt with great care, sensitivity, open mind and in a collaborative manner.
In this condition all the stake holders: the government, the faculty, students, parents, managements, other organisations, presently directly or indirectly involved in the process of education, etc, should be taken into confidence.
One of the most relevant factors to be taken into consideration is that this process cannot be imposed but it needs to be owned jointly and with great joy and dedication. In order to create this amicable and productive atmosphere all the stakeholders need to be motivated, sensitised and empowered and handled with great care and touch.
In fact our country was on the verge of revamping the whole educational system, which is long overdue, concentrating on centralisation and perhaps borrowing foreign models. The sudden appearance of COVID-19 was a jolt on every sphere of life, including education, forcing the leaders and educationists to bring in paradigm shift, perhaps from centralisation to decentralisation, from classroom to online and plus, with a focus from internationalisation to nationalisation, etc.
The economy, which is the backbone of any existence, will play a very crucial, significant and important role.
ONLINE TEACHING, LEARNING
We are well aware of online transactions, such as Online Shopping, Online Banking. There are already APPS created and the process is restricted to those who can and those to whom it is accessible and affordable. But education has to be available to all the students and to all the geographical areas where the students are staying. It has to be affordable to each and every student, parents and educational institutions, and it has to reach to every nook and corner of the nation.
The basic meaning of Online Teaching which I obtained from Google is as follows: “Online teaching typically refers to courses that are delivered completely online, meaning there are no physical or on-campus class sessions. Online courses can be designed for a handful of enrolled students or can be made open and accessible to wide variety of participants, such as with a massive open online course (MOOC).”
The above definition is basic and it is against the classroom teaching. The situation prior to the pandemic was different and now there is urgency for a change which needs to be taken seriously and properly.
Till today Online Education was available to those who wanted and to those it was feasible, accessible and affordable. But today this very concept has to be taken in a very accommodative and practical way and even at a certain extent part classroom teaching should be a complimentary part of Online Teaching-Learning process.
The concept, as it is today, may not be very clear. What is it: Powerpoint sharing, sending notes through email or WhatsApp, virtual classroom teaching, conference type teaching, audio lessons, lessons through Skype, LMS, etc, etc? Is this possible and will it have the desired results? Our content till today is classroom teaching content.
As a matter of fact Online Teaching placed against the background of classroom teaching may never be a reality in present circumstances keeping in mind that this is the need of the hour if formal education has to survive and reach each and every child and each and every area of our country.
Whenever any emergency situation or very important issue arises affecting the whole country or if the security of the country is at stake or if any vital situation came up affecting all the citizens, all party meetings are held keeping aside all the differences and going beyond the normal boundaries. So also in this situation when there is lot of confusion and uncertainties and the future is not very clear without any direction at least for the years to come, all efforts should be made to bring all the stakeholders together in order to come out with a minimum common programme in order to safeguard the interest of the education and the interest of the children and of the parents.
Pending these efforts and appreciating all the initiatives made and in order to achieve the desired results and to bear some practical fruits I would like to make some important suggestions to various stake holders faced with the uncertainties, apprehensions, fears, challenges, resource drains, content format, the present syllabi, etc, etc
(To be continued)
(The writer is the president of Diocesan Society of Education)
