FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Blaise Costabir
As we go about our daily lives, accepting the fact that we have to share our world with the mighty mite yet wash our hands to keep the mite at bay. The fact that we are learning to accept this situation is very visible, if death by COVID is not enough, gang warfare is back to the future, horse trading is back on the cards, and regular issues like flooding are back in the news.
Troubling news that pressure is being put on the Government to restart schools and colleges. This subset of the population is vulnerable just as much as those on the other side of the “Age” hill. Since, March when exams were suddenly disrupted and June should have seen the rains along with a brand new academic year in normal times. In COVID times we have seen a good start to the monsoon, but thankfully schools have not opened. Thankfully because we had “0” cases a few weeks ago and now we have the graph shooting up. To open schools at this point would be a decision we will regret going forward. Russia and Israel have already seen a jump in cases and retracted their decision to open schools.
Schools are not like the economy. We had to restart the economy, but in the case of schools we can take our time. Why, the COVID situation has affected the entire countries education system and therefore the decisions taken must be at the National level. At the National level the Government must declare academic year 20-21 as a gap year.
The students can use this year to complete their missed exams and be ready for the next academic year in June/July 2021. This will allow all students to appear in such a way that social distancing norms are adhered to as the same can be staggered. The student can then focus on arts, music sports whatever they wish, even working as interns where age and safety permits. They can work in the fields, do carpentery, web designing etc as some are already doing so and this can help them get off the Ferris wheel of competition and smell the roses and enjoy a year of doing what they wish. A gap year is not uncommon to students in the west especially America.
This proposal is because the current fixation with internet based education is designed to help a few and not all. For starters, not many teachers are trained or have infrastructure to take an online class. They also do not have the material needed. An online class is different from teaching students in front of a blackboard in class. The internet infrastructure is pathetic and will need some investment, which the government can develop over this year either directly or by inviting private investment. The students cannot be expected to invest in hardware given the fact that most of the parents will be effected if they are working, either because of job loss or pay cuts, unless of course they are government employees. The fact that kids will not be able to sit at home watching a screen for even 45 minutes unsupervised and the more boring the classes the worse will be the problem. This itself means there is a need to have content which is engaging and thus needs time to develop.
The powers that be must work with the teachers and experts to develop online course content and evaluation system. Possibly a rotation system, 1/3rd of the class comes to school every third day and rest online. Experts can think this through and offer a comprehensive solution. The focus on physical presence seems to be more to justify teachers salary. In some cases especially private schools are even hiking fees which is a pathetic response to a bad situation. Surely the hike cannot be to pay teachers more, a pay cut and a fee cut would be more sensible, after all most of the parents would be facing a cash crunch. Guess for some “profit” still rules. The Government must act quickly to nip this profiteering in the bud.
The other big push nowadays is self employment. People are taking up trading and home cooking which was a major activity during the lock-down has now begun to give restaurants a run for their money. The fact that one can advertise one’s business on Whats App has helped a lot in cutting out the need for middle men.
They need to focus on a few things to make their mark else they will fall by the way side. First, value addition is key. Just buying fish and fruit and selling means you will have to compete with any and everyone as there is no differentiator. For eg: you are selling fish, fruit and vegetables offer to cleaned and pack hygienically or specify your offering is organic or freshly picked. Food service establishments be it cooked food or traditional sweets, apart from hygiene look at giving portion sizes by weight in your menus. Be upfront with the quantity, use standard packaging so customers know what to expect. Price is relevant to quality and quantity. Try reusable/ returnable containers. Be different.
Branding is also very important. This will enable customers to ask for your product by name. If there is a brand, it can be recommended, so brand from day one. Get your statutory approvals while you are starting, later you will not have time and then you will fall foul of the authorities.
The mighty mite may have its way but we can beat it by using this situation to make things positive for ourselves and those around us.
(The author prefers to write rather than chat in a balcao)
