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Subject: Indian Society

  • School Bag Policy, 2020

    The Directorate of Education has issued a circular asking school to follow the new ‘School Bag Policy, 2020’ released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

    Q.What are the features of the School Bag Policy, 2020? Discuss how heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and learning capability of students.

    School Bag Policy, 2020

    • According to the circular, schoolteachers should inform the students in advance about the books and notebooks to be brought to school on a particular day.
    • They frequently need to check their bags to ensure that they are not carrying unnecessary material.
    • It adds that the teachers should take the responsibility of checking the weight of school bags of the students every three months on a day selected for the whole class.
    • It also holds that any information about heavy bags should be communicated to the parents.
    • The circular also says that it is the duty and the responsibility of the school management to provide quality potable water in sufficient quantity.
    • It adds that files and thin/light exercise books should be preferred to thick/heavy ones.

    Prescribed weights

    The weight of the school bags, as per the policy, should be

    • 6 to 2.2 kg for students of Classes I and II
    • 7 to 2.5 kg for Classes III, IV and V
    • 2 to 3 kg for Classes VI and VII
    • 5 to 4 kg for Class VIII
    • 5 to 4.5 kg for Classes IX and X
    • 5 to 5 kg for Classes XI and XII

    Why heavy school bags are a curse?

    • Heavy school bags are a serious threat to the health and well-being of students.
    • A heavy backpack can pull on the neck muscles contributing to headache, shoulder pain, lower back pain and neck and arm pain.
    • Not just this, carrying backpacks over one shoulder is a wrong practice as it makes muscles strain.
    • The spine leans to the opposite side, stressing the middle back, ribs, and lower back more on one side than the other and this muscle imbalance can cause muscle strain, muscle spasm, and back pain.
    • Heavy school bags are also one of the major reasons for cervical and lumbar pains.
    • The posture of the body also gets affected to a great extent which in the long term develops imbalances in the body and affects the health of the nervous system.

  • Issues with NEP’s regulatory architecture

    The article deals with the idea of single regulator for higher education in the country and the challenges it could fece.

    Recommendations for regulation of higher education

    • Regulatory bodies came up in response to the rapid growth of private participation since the 1980s.
    • Due to multiplicity of regulatory bodies in higher education, nearly all advisory panels appointed since 2005 have been asked for a single regulator.
    • National Knowledge Commission (NKC) concluded in 2007 that the plethora of agencies attempting to control entry, operation, intake, price, size, output and exit had rendered the regulation of higher education ineffectual.
    • The NKC recommended the setting up of an overarching Independent Regulatory Authority in Higher Education (IRAHE).
    • A major concern of the Yash Pal Committee constituted in 2009 was compartmentalisation of academia.
    • To promote such a dialogue, the Yash Pal committee recommended the creation of an apex body called the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER).
    • TSR Subramanian committee in 2016 proposed an Act for setting up an Indian Regulatory Authority for Higher Education (IRAHE) to subsume all existing regulatory bodies in higher education.
    • The draft national policy presented by the Kasturirangan Committee in 2019 proposed a National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) as a common regulatory regime for entire higher education sector.
    • The draft NEP 2020 proposed a Rashtriya Shiksha Aayog (RSA) to coordinate, direct and address inter-institutional overlaps and conflicts.

    The regulatory regime under NEP 2020

    • NEP 2020 has now a single regulator for all higher education barring medical and law education.
    • It envisages an overarching Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), with four independent verticals comprising the National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC), the National Accreditation Council (NAC), the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) and the General Education Council (GEC).
    •  The University Grants Commission (UGC) is to become HEGC while the other regulatory bodies will become professional standard setters.

    Fragmented regulation of medical education to continue

    • NEP-2020 provides for separate regulation for medical education.
    • But it envisions healthcare education as an inter-disciplinary system.[Allopathic student to have a basic understanding of Ayurveda, Yoga etc and vice-versa]
    • Multiple regulators in health education include the National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH) and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and continuation of the Dental Council of India (DCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and the Indian Nursing Council (INC),
    • Thus, making medical education inter-disciplinary would be difficult due to multiple regulators.

    Lessons from the governance of medical education

    • The above example demonstrate the difficulty in designing a single regulatory framework to take care of the domain-specific needs of even within healthcare education.
    • But if accepted as a principle, it has the potential to delay, if not derail, the idea of a single regulator.
    • And should that actually happen, the idea of reining in the regulators might mean abandoning the idea of regulation of regulators.

    Issues with the single regulator proposed in NEP 2020

    • The regulatory architecture proposed in the NEP is far too monolithic for a system of higher education serving a geographically, culturally and politically diverse country like ours.
    • Even in the matter of privatisation, there is enormous diversity of players and practices.
    • Historically too, private participation in the running of colleges has not followed a single pattern.
    • To imagine that a uniform structure called Board of Governors can serve all different kinds of institutions across the country is flawed.
    • Such a vision calls for better appreciation of what exists, no matter how worrisome a condition it is in.

    Consider the question “What are the challenges in the regulation of higher education in the country? What are the concerns with the idea of single regulator for the regualtion of higher education in country?”

    Conclusion

    Before proceeding with the single regulator, the government need to pay attention to the issue of diversity in various aspects in the country.

  • Governance reforms in central universities

    Central Universities need reforms in their Governing Councils to make them realise their potential.

    Central Universities in the need of reforms

    • There are 55 central universities.
    • These are endowed with prime land, extensive funding from the central government and there is a long line of students waiting to get in.
    • However, they are in turmoil. In recent years, six vice-chancellors (VCs) of central universities have been sacked.
    • Some of these institutions have seen their glory days, yet increasingly, the energy is going out of the system.
    • However, not a single new private university has so far been able to create a true broad-based Vishwa Vidyalaya with the full range of humanities, social and natural sciences, and professional disciplines.
    • Therefore, to save academia in India, central universities must be saved.

    Organizational structure

    • Each of the 55 central universities is governed by a separate Act. but the broad structure is as follows.
    • The Visitor of the university is the President of India.
    • On his behalf, the Ministry of Education recommends an eminent citizen as the chancellor, whose role is mostly ceremonial.
    • The Ministry also constitutes a search committee for the post of VC, which comes up with a list of 3 candidates.
    • From this list, the government picks a VC.
    • Separately, and through a different process, the governing council (GC) is chosen.
    • The governing council (GC) of the university usually have nominees from various stakeholders, including the government, faculty, students, and citizens.
    • The university’s work is carried out by the executive council chaired by the VC, who also appoints the registrar.
    • A separate finance committee is constituted, headed by a chief finance officer, who is often a civil servant on secondment to the university.
    • This arrangement is designed to maintain financial checks and balances.

    Issues with the governance

    • The GC has no say in the selection of the VC.
    • The GC typically meets only once a year and its size is usually very large.[Delhi University has 475 members]
    • In theory, the VC presents and gets approval for the annual plan of the university from the GC.
    • In practice, after much grandstanding on both sides, the plan is rubberstamped.
    • After that, throughout the year, there is the minimal direction or monitoring from the GC, which may or may not meet again.
    • There are typically no quarterly updates, and there is little oversight.
    • Under the circumstances, the high number of failures should not come as a surprise, since effectively, there is minimal governance.

    Comparing with provisions in IIM Bill

    • The new IIM Bill very sensibly limits the GC to at most 19 members.
    • They are expected to be eminent citizens, with broad social representation and an emphasis on alumni.
    • This GC chooses the director, provides overall strategic direction, raises resources, and continuously monitors his or her performance.
    • Within the guidelines provided by the GC, the director has full autonomy but also full accountability.

    Way forward

    • The governing councils of all central universities, IITs, and all other central institutions, need to be restructured by an Act of Parliament.
    • The most eminent alumni of these institutions must be brought on their boards.
    • The dynamism and exposure that these alumni bring to the table will promptly lead to world-class innovations.

    Conclusion

    To allow central universities, the IITs and other public institutions to truly blossom, we need to reform their Governance. There is no time to waste.

  • Scheduled Castes Post-matric Scholarship Plan

    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved changes to the post-matric scholarship scheme for students from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), including a new funding pattern of 60-40 for the Centre and States.

    Note:

    Equality enshrined in the Constitution is not mathematical equality and does not mean all citizens will be treated alike without any distinction.

    To this effect, the Constitution underlines two distinct aspects which together form the essence of equality law:

    1) Non-discrimination among equals, and

    2) Affirmative action to equalize the unequal

    About the Scholarship

    • It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and implemented through State Government and UT administration.
    • Under the scheme, the government provides financial assistance to students from SCs for higher education at post-matriculation and post-senior-secondary stages, which means Class XI onwards.
    • It can be availed by those, whose household incomes are less than Rs 2.5 lakh annually.

    What are the new changes?

    • States would carry out verification of the students’ eligibility and caste status and collect their Aadhaar and bank account details.
    • Transfer of financial assistance to the students under the scheme shall be on DBT [direct benefit transfer] mode, and preferably using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.
    • Starting from 2021-22, the Central share [60%] in the scheme would be released on DBT mode directly into the bank accounts of the students as per a fixed time schedule.

    Why such changes now?

    • The changes were aimed at enabling four crore students to access higher education over the next five years.
    • Switching from the existing “committed liability” formula, the new funding pattern would increase the Centre’s involvement in the scheme.

    Benefits of the scheme

    • The changes approved by the Cabinet were aimed at enrolling the poorest students, ensuring timely payments, and maintaining accountability.
    • An estimated 1.36 crore students who would otherwise drop out after Class 10 would be brought into the higher education system under the scheme in five years.

  • [pib] PM Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS)

    The Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) instalment has been released to support J&K and Ladakh students.

    Tap to read more about: Reorganization of J&K

    About PMSSS

    • The PMSSS aims to build the capacities of the youths of J&K and Ladakh by educating, enabling and empowering them to compete in the normal course.
    • Under the Scheme, the youths of J&K and Ladakh are supported by way of scholarship in two parts namely the academic fee & maintenance allowance.
    • The academic fee is paid to the institution where the student is provided admission after on-line counselling process conducted by the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education).
    • The academic fee covers tuition fee and other components as per the ceiling fixed for various professional, medical and other under-graduate courses.
    • In order to meet the expenditure towards hostel accommodation, mess expenses, books & stationery etc., a fixed amount of Rs.1.00 Lakh is provided to the beneficiary and is paid in instalments of Rs. 10,000/- pm directly into students account.

  • Standards must not be lowered to certify Ayurveda postgraduates surgeons

    This conundrum of different standards for surgical training must be solved because patient safety is far more important than the career progression of Ayurvedic postgraduates.

    Practice Question: There is a need to rethink on the recent notification of AYUSH Ministry allowing Ayurveda postgraduates to conduct surgeries keeping the safety of the patient at the centre. Discuss.

    The current clash

    • The clash between the allopathic and AYUSH fraternities is about the AYUSH practitioners’ “right” to conduct surgeries.
    • The Ayurvedic fraternity maintains postgraduates in Shalya and Shalakya (two surgical streams among 14 post-graduate courses) are taught procedures listed in the curriculum.
    • The oldest-known surgical specialist was, in fact, an Ayurvedic surgeon/sage Sushrut (600 BC) who wrote the Sushrut Samhita — a profound exposition on conducting human surgery which continues to receive worldwide acclaim.
    • Surgery was practised by Ayurvedic surgeons long before the advent of western medicine.
    • Allopaths question the logic of Sushrut’s millennia-old pre-eminence bestowing the right to practise modern surgery. Ayurvedic surgeons may not know the hidden risks of every surgical procedure and how to surmount sudden mishaps.
    • The Ministry of AYUSH justifies its notification on the ground that not all vaidyas but only postgraduates qualifying from two surgical streams have been authorized to perform selected surgeries.

    The contentious issue

    • The moot point is about who decides whether Ayurvedic surgeons possess sufficient proficiency to conduct these surgeries safely and by what standard their skills are judged.
    • Surgical proficiency cannot be judged by different standards in one country — particularly when less-educated patients would rather save money than question a surgeon’s qualifications.
    • The statutory regulatory body for AYUSH education is the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM). CCIM has only promoted what private college managements demand, propelled, in turn, by students’ need to earn a stable income as medical professionals.
    • In this misplaced zeal to give better earnings to the Ayurvedic vaidyas, CCIM has sidelined many skills that Ayurveda could have included, which are relevant even today.
    • This has subjugated the curriculum to nurture more and more replicas of doctors of modern medicine.
    • This has killed the knowledge, purity and goodness of classical Ayurveda, which ironically is the Ayurveda in high demand in Europe, Russia and America.

    Nothing can replace practise and training to perform surgery

    • When it comes to surgery, it is not knowledge but rigorous training and continuous practice which makes for perfection. Both require clinical material and most Ayurvedic hospitals do not have a fraction of the surgical patients found in allopathic general hospitals.
    • Allopathic students of surgery learn first by watching and then performing scores of surgeries under supervision.
    • Surgical skills are by no means impossible to learn but they become difficult to master without continuous training and supervision.
    • Due to the paucity of patients, limited scope for training and access to gaining hands-on practice, it is hazardous to allow all Shalya and Shalakya postgraduates to undertake surgical procedures.
    • In the last three decades, specialization has excluded general surgeons from performing what was once considered routine. For example, only an ENT surgeon can perform a tonsillectomy.
    • Therefore, to notify that Ayurvedic postgraduates in surgery can perform omnibus operations runs counter to the norm in India and in other countries.

    Way forward

    • In performing surgery, the only benchmark should be the duration of hands-on training received — counted by surgeries under supervision, and being judged through external evaluation.
    • Every surgeon’s skills and competence must be tested by applying exactly the same standards before she/he can operate.
    • This conundrum of different standards for surgical training must be solved because patient safety is far more important than the career progression of Ayurvedic postgraduates.

  • Issues related to Nursing Sector in India

    The year 2020 has been designated as “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife”.

    But the nursing education in India displays a grim situation. It suffers poor quality of training, inequitable distribution, and non-standardized practices.

    Nursing sector in India

    • Nurses and midwives will be central to achieving universal health coverage in India.
    • India’s nursing workforce is about two-thirds of its health workforce. Its ratio of 7 nurses per 1,000 population is 43% less than the World Health Organization norm; it needs 2.4 million nurses to meet the norm.
    • The sector is dogged by structural challenges that lead to poor quality of training, inequitable distribution, and non-standardized practices.

    Uneven regulation

    Nursing education in India has a wide array of certificate, diploma, and degree programmes for clinical and non-clinical nursing roles.

    • The Indian Nursing Council regulates nursing education through prescription, inspection, examination, and certification. 91% of the nursing education institutions are private and weakly regulated. The quality of training of nurses is diminished by the uneven and weak regulation.
    • The current nursing education is outdated and fails to cater to the practice needs. The education, including re-training, is not linked to the roles and their career progression in the nursing practice.
    • There are insufficient postgraduate courses to develop skills in specialities and address critical faculty shortages both in terms of quality and quantity.
    • These factors have led to gaps in skills and competencies, with no clear career trajectory for nurses.
    • Multiple entries point to the nursing courses and lack of integration of the diploma and degree courses diminish the quality of training.
    • A common entrance exam, a national licence exit exam for entry into practice, and periodic renewal of licence linked with continuing nursing education would significantly streamline and strengthen nursing education.
    • Transparent accreditation, benchmarking, and ranking of nursing institutions too would improve the quality.
    • The number of nursing education institutions has been increasing steadily but there are vast inequities in their distribution. Around 62% of them are situated in southern India.
    • There is little demand for postgraduate courses. Recognizing the need for speciality courses in clinical nursing 12 PG diploma courses were rolled out but the higher education qualification is not recognized by the recruiters.
    • The faculty positions vacant in nursing college and schools are around 86% and 80%, respectively.

    Gaps in education, services

    • There is a lack of job differentiation between diploma, graduate, and postgraduate nurses regarding their pay, parity, and promotion.
    • The higher qualifications are underutilized, leading to low demand for postgraduate courses.
    • Those with advanced degrees seek employment in educational institutions or migrate abroad which has led to an acute dearth of qualified nurses in the country.
    • Small private institutions with less than 50 beds recruit candidates without formal nursing education. They are offered courses of three to six months for non-clinical ancillary nursing roles and are paid very little.
    • The Indian Nursing Act primarily revolves around nursing education and does not provide any policy guidance about the roles and responsibilities of nurses in various cadres.
    • Nurses in India have no guidelines on the scope of their practice and have no prescribed standards of care and is a major reason for the low legitimacy of the nursing practice and the profession. This may endanger patient safety.
    • The Consumer Protection Act holds only the doctor and the hospital liable for medico-legal issues; nurses are out of the purview of the Act. This is contrary to the practices in developed countries where nurses are legally liable for errors in their work.

    Institutional reforms required

    1. The governance of nursing education and practice must be clarified and made current.
    2. The Indian Nursing Council Act of 1947must be amended to explicitly state clear norms for service and patient care, fix the nurse to patient ratio, staffing norms and salaries.
    3. The jurisdictions of the Indian Nursing Council and the State nursing councils must be explained and coordinated so that they are synergistic.
    4. Incentives to pursue advanced degrees to match their qualification, clear career paths, the opportunity for leadership roles, and improvements in the status of nursing as a profession should be done.
    5. A live registry of nurses, positions, and opportunities should be a top priority to tackle the demand-supply gap in this sector.
    6. The public-private partnership between private nursing schools/colleges and public health facilities is another strategy to enhance nursing education. NITI Aayog has recently formulated a framework to develop a model agreement for nursing education.
    7. The Government has also announced supporting such projects through a Viability Gap Funding.

    Practice Question:

    Q. Discuss the various issues related to nursing sector in India and measures to be taken to address them.

    A Bill that could spell hope

    • The disabling environment prevalent in the system has led to the low status of nurses in the hierarchy of health-care professionals. In fact, nursing has lost the appeal as a career option.
    • The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill currently under consideration should hopefully address some of the issues highlighted.
    • These disruptions are more relevant than ever in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Surgery as part of Ayurveda

    Last month, a government notification listed out specific surgical procedures that a postgraduate medical student of Ayurveda must be “practically trained to acquaint with, as well as to independently perform”.

    Q.Allowing modern surgeries to Ayurveda professionals is a mixopathy and an encroachment into the jurisdiction and competencies of modern medicine. Critically analyse.

    What is the notification?

    • The notification mentions 58 surgical procedures that postgraduate students must train themselves in and acquires skills to perform independently.
    • These include procedures in general surgery, urology, surgical gastroenterology, and ophthalmology.

    The issue

    • The notification has invited sharp criticism from the Indian Medical Association, which questioned the competence of Ayurveda practitioners to carry out these procedures.
    • They have called the notification as an attempt at “mixopathy”.
    • The IMA has planned nationwide protests against this notification and has threatened to withdraw all non-essential and non-Covid services.

    Surgery as a part of Ayurveda

    • It is not that Ayurveda practitioners are not trained in surgeries, or do not perform them.
    • In fact, they take pride in the fact that their methods and practices trace their origins to Sushruta, an ancient Indian sage and physician.
    • The comprehensive medical treatise Sushruta Samhita has, apart from descriptions of illnesses and cures, detailed accounts of surgical procedures and instruments.
    • There are two branches of surgery in Ayurveda — Shalya Tantra, which refers to general surgery, and Shalakya Tantra which pertains to surgeries related to the eyes, ears, nose, throat and teeth.
    • All postgraduate students of Ayurveda have to study these courses, and some go on to specialize in these and become Ayurveda surgeons.

    Distinctions in surgical procedures

    • For several surgeries Ayurvedic procedures almost exactly match those of modern medicine about how or where to make a cut or incision, and how to perform the operation.
    • There are significant divergences in post-operative care, however.
    • The only thing that Ayurveda does not do is super-speciality surgeries, like neurosurgery or open-heart surgeries.
    • For most other needs, there are surgical procedures in Ayurveda. It is not very different from allopathic medicine.

    Ayurvedic surgeries before the notification

    • PG education in Ayurveda is guided by the Indian Medical Central Council (Post Graduate Education) Regulations framed from time to time.
    • Currently, the regulations formulated in 2016 are in force. The latest notification of last month is an amendment to the 2016 regulations.
    • The 2016 regulations allow postgraduate students to specialise in Shalya Tantra, Shalakya Tantra, and Prasuti evam Stree Roga (Obstetrics and Gynecology), the three disciplines involving major surgical interventions.
    • Students of these three disciplines are granted MS (Master in Surgery in Ayurveda) degrees.

    Arguments in favour

    • Ayurveda practitioners point out that students enrolling in Ayurveda courses have to pass the same NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test).
    • Ayurveda institutions prescribe textbooks from modern medicine, or that they carry out surgeries with the help of practitioners of modern medicine.
    • Their course, internship and practice also run parallel to the MBBS courses.
    • Postgraduate courses require another three years of study. They also have to undergo clinical postings in the outpatient and In-patient departments at hospitals apart from getting hands-on training.
    • Medico-legal issues, surgical ethics and informed consent is also part of the course apart from teaching Sushruta’s surgical principles and practices.

    So, what is new?

    • Ayurveda practitioners say the latest notification just brings clarity to the skills that an Ayurveda practitioner possesses.
    • The surgeries that have been mentioned in the notification are all that are already part of the Ayurveda course. But there is little awareness about these.
    • A patient is usually not clear whether an Ayurvedic practitioner has the necessary skill to perform one of these operations.
    • Now, they know exactly what an Ayurveda doctor is capable of. The skill sets have been defined. This will remove question marks on the ability of an Ayurveda practitioner.

    What are the IMA’s objections?

    • IMA doctors insist that they are not opposed to the practitioners of the ancient system of medicine.
    • But they say the new notification somehow gives the impression that the skills or training of the Ayurveda doctor in performing modern surgeries are the same as those practising modern medicine.
    • This, they say, is misleading, and an “encroachment into the jurisdiction and competencies of modern medicine”.
    • The IMA has condemned the move calling it predatory poaching on modern medicine and its surgical disciplines.
    • The IMA has demanded that the notification, as well as the NITI Aayog, move towards ‘One Nation One System’ (of AYUSH) be withdrawn.

  • Gender Advancement through Transforming Institutions (GATI) Initiative

    One of the focuses of the new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, currently being drafted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is to increase the participation of women in science.

    Connect the dots:

    Women in STEM presents a dismal picture of gender equality in India.

    GATI

    • The DST is incorporating a system of grading institutes depending on the enrolment of women and the advancement of the careers of women faculty and scientists.
    • It will be called GATI (Gender Advancement through Transforming Institutions).
    • The concept borrows from a programme started by the UK in 2005 called the Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network), which is now being adopted by many countries.
    • The DST will soon launch a pilot, which the British Council has helped it develop.

    Why need such initiative?

    • India is ranked 108 out of 149 countries in the 2018 Global Gender Gap report.
    • According to DST figures, in 2015-16, the share of women involved in scientific research and development was 14.71% — after it had actually increased from 13% in 2000-2001 to 29% in 2014-15.
    • The DST has also found that women are either not promoted, or very often drop out mid-career to attend to their families.

    What is Athena SWAN?

    • The Athena SWAN Charter is an evaluation and accreditation programme in the UK enhancing gender equity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
    • Participating research organisations and academic institutions are required to analyse data on gender equity and develop action plans for improvement.
    • Signatories commit to addressing various issues such as –
    1. Unequal gender representation;
    2. Tackling the gender pay gap;
    3. Removing the obstacles faced by women in career development and progression;
    4. Discriminatory treatment often experienced by trans people;
    5. Gender balance of committees and zero tolerance for bullying and sexual harassment.

    Way ahead

    • To get as many institutions as possible to sign up, the DST will need to manoeuvre around government red tape as most universities, barring the IITs and NITs, are run and funded by the government as well.
    • This means that these institutions don’t have direct control over institutional policies, recruitment and promotions.
    • The DST has tied up with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), under the UGC, aiming to push gender equity through them.

  • ‘Myths of Online Education’ Report

    The Azim Premji University has published the report titled “Myths of Online Education”, on the efficacy and accessibility of e-learning.

    We have studied the Impacts of COVID-19 on Education. https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-education-in-times-of-covid-19/
    This report provides decent data about the woes of online education and is easy to remember.

    About the study

    • The study was undertaken in five States across 26 districts and covered 1,522 schools. More than 80,000 students study in these government schools.
    • It examined the experience of children and teachers with online education.

    Highlights of the study

    • More than 60% of the respondents who are enrolled in government schools could not access online education.
    • Children with disabilities in fact found it more difficult to participate in online sessions.
    • 90% of the teachers who work with children with disabilities found their students unable to participate online.
    • Almost 70% of the parents surveyed were of the opinion that online classes were not effective and did not help in their child’s learnings.
    • 90% of parents of government school students surveyed were willing to send their children back to school.
    • The survey also revealed that around 75% of the teachers spent, on an average, less than an hour a day on online classes for any grade.

    Online classes are less effective

    • Teachers as well as students their expressed frustration with online classes.
    • More than 80% surveyed said they were unable to maintain emotional connect with students during online classes, while 90% of teachers felt that no meaningful assessment of children’s learning was possible.
    • Another hurdle that teachers found during the online classes was the one-way communication, which made it difficult for them to gauge whether students understood what was being taught.
    • Teachers also reported that they were ill-prepared for online learning platforms.