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2.7 Million Teachers Are Unequipped For Online Education. Experts Share Solutions

Vedika Jain

With rapidly rising COVID-19 cases and the nation entering its 4th stage of ‘unlocking’, learning and schooling are being encouraged through digital forms of education. The new National Education Policy (NEP) too encourages leveraging technology and innovation in teaching. In such a scenario, the questions of access and equity have become key concerns with millions of children, particularly girls being at risk of dropping out of schools due to the digital divide.

At the same time, according to research from UNESCO, an estimated 2.7 million teachers in India have been impacted by the pandemic-related school closures and require serious training in adapting to new styles of teaching. With teachers struggling to adapt to the new method of teaching, the quality of education is taking a hit as well.

This Teacher’s Day, YKA hosted a Twitter Chat with 4 education experts and 4 teachers to initiate a conversation on the issues teachers themselves are facing, and what and where are the gaps that need to be filled to build stronger, technologically driven institutions for better education.

 

1. Access, Training, and Care – the three critical needs of teachers

Speaking on the ways digital inequities can be bridged in government schools, Shaheen Mistri, CEO of Teach For India, highlighted the gaps in accessing digital devices, among students. She further said that through a blended-learning approach, this gap can be filled and children can continue to experience the joy of learning even during these difficult times.


In light of the NEP, she emphasized the urgent need to train teachers in online teaching and to enable them with the skills required to provide safe spaces online, a role traditionally played by physical schools.

She also suggested a 3-step model to ensure that needs of both teachers and students are addressed during this challenging time that results in an education system that is better equipped and attuned to the needs of its most important stakeholders, the students.

Teachers from the panel shared their personal experiences of being unable to reach their students and losing their jobs as well – a narrative that hasn’t been receiving the media attention it deserves. But solving this issue is a critical step towards building better institutions and getting children back to school.


2. Meaningful online interventions can be created with the right training and support

Physical spaces such as libraries have played a crucial role in sparking and maintaining the interest of children in schools. Swaha Sahoo, Head, Parag Initiative, Tata Trusts, joined the conversation to discuss the challenges and solutions to providing this space online.


Before teachers can provide education online, they themselves need access to digital devices. Swaha highlighted how access to such devices is yet to become a reality for many teachers in India’s most backward areas and as a result, teaching has come to a standstill. But with efforts underway to provide teachers and students with access, she provided a concrete roadmap that teachers can take to make online engagements with students more meaningful.


In addition to making interactions more meaningful, teachers and students require additional psycho-social support. The anxiety and fear brought on by the pandemic coupled with job insecurity, has had a major impact on the mental health of teachers. Teachers from the panel shared some of these concerns.


3. Training in creating safe spaces online is the need of the hour to ensure girls don’t drop out

Discussing the need to adopt a gendered lens when re-integrating children into the education system, Yuman Hussain, Executive Director, Azad India Foundation (AIF), added her perspective on pandemic’s impact on the efforts of civil society organizations.

Citing a National Sample Survey report, she highlighted how only 16% of girls in rural areas have access to the internet. With limited access to the internet, girls in rural areas are experiencing a greater learning loss and a higher risk of dropping out of school.


Girls in Bihar are facing an even greater challenge to education as they battle both the pandemic and floods. With little support from the government, teachers are rising to the occasion on their own volition.

Safety concerns for girls participating on online platforms has also led to many parents preventing their daughters from pursuing digital education. Teachers from the panel discussed how the pandemic is disproportionately affecting girls.


4. Effective policy-formulation keeping ground-realities and the needs of both teachers and students are critical to ensure continued education

Further enriching the conversation with her experiences from on-ground reporting, Nalini Ravichandran, an independent journalist, commented on government efforts and on-ground realities.


She summed up how urban India experienced a tech boom while the poor were left out, with a quote from a government school teacher in Bastar whom she interviewed:


With teachers being unable to contact and map the progress of their students, anganwadi workers, and even frontline workers and psychologists have been stepping in to provide well-being support to children in rural areas.

As the pandemic is resulting in many teachers either losing their jobs or facing massive pay-cuts, she called upon the government to recognize teachers as essential workers and devise effective policies to train and equip them with digital resources.


She added that in addition to equipping teachers with digital resources, there is also a need to bridge the access gap for students, particularly girls. As teachers from the panel shared, both students and teachers need to be equipped with and trained in using technology to facilitate continued education in the age of digital education.


This critical conversation was organised in partnership with Malala Fund. During this conversation, experts, educators, and young people came to the fore and engaged with one another to spark a conversation around the challenges of digital education teachers are facing during the pandemic and how teachers play a critical role in bringing children #BackToSchool and form a major part of the support system for children, especially girls, in being able to pursue their education.

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