Educationists urge the state government to plan a roadmap for next year

Bengaluru: As there is uncertainty over whether the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic will be in control or not for the reopening of the new academic year in June, educationists in Bengaluru have urged the government to plan ahead and not repeat last year’s mistakes.

According to the experts, the delay in making the right decisions at the right time cost the state heavily as students had to stay away from learning for long.

The government initially banned school from holding online classes last year. The order was reversed only after private schools moved to the high court. Vidyagama which is a continuous learning process was started in August but it came to a halt in October. Teachers were asked to stay in touch with the students in November and December but very little happened. Regular classes for high schools commenced in Januray which was eventually called off except for class 10.

Maya Menon, founder director, Teacher Foundation said, “Unfortunately, the government did not create an education emergency task force that could have planned, guided and monitored the sector and practically and effectively ensured learning for children across the state. There was no concerned effort at ensuring minimum lag in learning opportunities for children who study in government schools.”

She acknowledges that some efforts were made to address the problem like using educational channels on TV, sending lessons on WhatsApp and conducting Vidyagama classes. She said, “But there was little coherence. Moreover, the emphasis appeared to be on keeping teachers busy with ‘Covid duty’ rather than enabling them to meaningfully transact learning.”

Experts say that it is very important for government to make a roadmap for the next academic year. Sumedha Rao, lead volunteer, Whitefield Ready that works with government schools, said, “The government has to acknowledge that the pandemic is here to stay. All decisions on reopening schools must be taken keeping that in mind.”

Most of the educationists are of the view that the decision to reopen schools must be left to individual school development monitoring committees.

Rishikesh BS, faculty of Aziz Premji University said, “Tecahers must be trained for severe regression in learning among students and the State Council of Educational Research and Training must prepare appropriate material, plans, strategies and ideas to support teachers. The syllabus will have to be reconfigured as teachers will have to combine content of at least two grades given the academic regression. District Institutes of Education and Training must be rooed in to reduce content and identify core concepts