Demystifying Education
Sunday, March 14, 2021
The immortal words of Helen Keller aptly encapsulate the present education scenario: ‘A bend in the road is not the end of the road….unless you fail to make a turn’. Courtesy to the discourteous virus, children have nowhere to hide, and the ‘Temple of Learning’ has come home.
At one end, one could witness an inquisitive student who dashes audaciously to face the camera and on the other end, one could encounter an enquiring teacher who is in the lookout for an affable mediator. The pedagogues are literally alchemized to jugglers and have to combat this grotesque challenge with vivacity and placidity. It is a Herculian task to lovingly enslave the kids, especially when the shift is from 3D images to 2D images. But ultimately, they will pull off splendidly.
To a greater extent, home is the cynosure of indulgence as intense bouts of concentration are interspersed with the fragrance of freshly prepared food, frequent trips to the washroom, enticement of a younger sibling to the playroom, frequent eavesdropping of the lighter moments shared by family members,…..and the list goes on.. On a lighter note, the much-aspired luxury for a child, the ‘screen time’, is suddenly bounteous. The classical instrument of teachers’ accession, eye contact, succumbs to parental vigilance, the perennial ‘surveillance camera’. For high-school kids, the ‘support team', comprising parents and siblings, empowers the understanding of concepts. For primary kids, parents entice them to patiently sit through their regular sessions by ‘bribing’ them with their favourite refreshments. In the present scenario, online classes might remove the stress of long hours of schooling and could provide a safe, secure, and relaxing environment for a primary kid.
Students are both bewildered and jittery, as the ‘home-schooling’ is indeed a contradiction in routine. The predictable morning ‘drill’ at home is disarrayed and the fun-filled morning trips to school with friends, recesses entangled in gossips, the delicacies shared among buddies, and the real-life connectivity with teachers, have all been transformed to a dream now. The priceless and fathomless camaraderie is indeed irretrievable.
But on a serious note, the affectionate touch of a teacher and the privilege of amassing knowledge from the ‘horse’s mouth’ in a class room environment are denied. Moreover, in the long run, the social adaptation of students will go down the drain and selfishness and egoism might creep in as they are confined to their fantasyland.
The beauty of life lies in the constant acclimatization to the surroundings. Human race will definitely learn to embrace change. In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, what seems to be ‘bitter trials’ might indirectly be ‘a silver lining’ in the history of mankind, especially in the field of education. Resilience should be built in our education systems and the metamorphosis of traditional education, propelled by the catalyst, COVID-19, could lead to miraculous innovations.
The centuries-old, lecture-based approaches to teaching and the archaic corporal punishment have already taken a back seat. But now, when the whole world is forced to embrace uncertainty, traditional in-person classroom learning will never be the same again. Diverse stakeholders–including governments, educationists, and technology providers– should join their hands to provide new learning modalities and consortiums. These sessions should concentrate on practical simulations of theoretical expositions.
The reshaping of education, unfamiliar in many ways but identical in others, is a mission. The glaring digital divide that exists between the rich and the poor might make online instruction a distant prospect for many. Educational access should not be dictated by access to the latest technologies. The government should earnestly take necessary steps to cater to the educational needs of the underprivileged by providing them free internet facilities and multimedia gadgets, so that they could also be a part of the bandwagon and materialise their dreams. The pandemic has coerced the government, academicians, parents, and students to think critically, be creative, personalize the learning methodology and be agile. It highlights the fact that there is always an effective solution to every challenge. The pandemic has forced the schools to revolutionise their modus operandi and fortunately, teachers and students are rising to the occasion. Teachers have emerged to be the unsung heroes as they have redefined the education process.
When school checks in at home, top-notch education might be available to many at affordable prices. The administrative costs might be minimised to a great extent. For nations where good-quality teachers are abundant while infrastructure falls behind, online learning might be a breakthrough, which will empower high-quality edification at acceptable costs.
For any child, the teacher and the parent are the epitomes of cardinal virtue–seeding the foundations of etiquette and integrity–and their simultaneous presence, collaborating in a real-time space, might be a blessing in disguise, which will enhance the quality of learning. Literally, parents and teachers will be partners in rejiggering a child’s future. Learning will definitely become a habit that is interlaced with our daily routines - a true lifestyle.
Hope is tomorrow’s gloss over today’s dismay, the ‘silver lining’ that gives strength to humanity to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of despair. In the present scenario, when the whole world is confined to a cocoon, let the novel education system broaden the vision of future generation and transform them to be the torch bearers of indomitable fortitude.
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