The year 2020, is one of the most critical years in the history of the Indian education system. While on one hand, the government of India introduced its much-awaited new National Education Policy (2020) to completely transform the existing educational system in India and achieve a 100 per cent Gross Enrollment Rate by 2030; on the other hand, the global pandemic (COVID-19) left the Indian education system with uncertain futures.
During the national lockdown, when schools were closed, and only a few in the country had access to alternative mediums of learning, COVID-19 set in motion an educational emergency in the country. The solemnity of this educational emergency can be easily understood by the various reports that highlight the increased disparities and exceptional loss of learning due to the pandemic. For instance, a recent report by the Azim Premji Foundation (2021) highlights how the pandemic has deepened the existing inequalities in education, by showing that almost 60 per cent of school children in India can not access online learning opportunities.
Furthermore, although through its introduction NEP (2020) envisioned emphasizing the foundational numerical and literacy skills, however, amidst the scarcity of access to alternative learning opportunities, lack of training and other technical hindrances, i.e., internet speed, affordable data etc., the pandemic actually reversed the learning outcomes and caused a great extent of learning loss in the Indian education system. The ASER (2021) study from Chattisgarh shows that over 60 per cent of students of Class 1 and Class 2 in the Dantewada, Surajpur and Bijapur districts fail to recognise even single-digit numbers. Furthermore, only 10 per cent of Class 3 and Class 4 students in Bilaspur, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Mungeli were able to solve a subtraction problem. Similarly, another report by UNICEF (2021) suggests that nearly 80 per cent of children aged 14-18 years reported lower levels of learning compared to when they attended schools physically.
Education in exceptional times
The pandemic clearly highlighted the challenges and drawbacks of the existing education system in fighting back in exceptional times. However, the challenges caused by the pandemic could not be understood merely as an erstwhile phenomenon. Every year in India, students often face several situations of educational emergencies. While many students have to leave school due to natural calamities like earthquakes, floods and tsunamis. On the other side, those living in conflict-prone areas generally have precarious educational journeys as they constantly face attacks at their schools as well as homes. Every year, at a specific time of the year, many migrant students leave school to join and help their families on the farms. Leaving many children out of school or with compromised levels of learning. Considering this backdrop, does NEP (2020) provide us with any solutions or directions for such exceptional educational emergency situations?
Educational emergencies bring other crises too
In terms of educational emergencies in India, education loss due to COVID-19 received much attention in popular media and government debates. While the schools had to adopt a totally different medium of instruction, once again, the question of disparities in access and drawbacks in the existing education system in exceptional times became more evident than ever.
Being out of school due to an educational emergency leaves the students in more vulnerable circumstances like food, water, economic and housing insecurities, and students are more prone to child labour, child marriage, sexual assault, mental and psychological trauma and so on. However, despite the hyped discussions around educational emergencies during the national lockdown, NEP (2020) does not discuss or recommend any guidelines for such crisis situations and leaves the students in complete misery. There are hardly any provisions for impact assessment in NEP (2020) for educational emergencies like natural disasters, wars, health crises, political crises and so on.
Although very rarely NEP (2020) talks about educational emergencies and their repercussions, however even when it does talk about situations like pandemics, the document relies merely on conventional online learning and vague statements. For instance, while talking about the pandemic, though NEP calls to strengthen online teaching, however, the policy draft again forgets the role of research and innovation in education in emergency situations. Furthermore, the crisis due to the pandemic is simply negotiated by focusing more on vaccination-related research, conducting teaching online and using insensitive language like “ students will be pushed back to school”.
The policy draft simply neglects the crises bought by educational emergencies like the pandemic, such as many children losing their parents, many having to start working at an early age, and many leaving schools due to food, health and economic crises and also defend against the uncertainty of the lockdown, many migrated back to their home towns. The extent of migration during the pandemic was so extreme that many experts even called it the “ mass exodus”. In light of this dreadful education loss, a recent report by National Achievement Survey-NAS (2021) shows that the precarious crisis situation during the pandemic had adversely affected the student’s mental health. The report shows that nearly 97 per cent of students experienced anxiety and fear regarding their education.
Special Education Zones, Boarding Facilities and crises Management in NEP
In order to identify geographical areas which need special interventions for socially disadvantaged education groups, NEP (2020) envisioned forming special education zones (page 25), which will implement all schemes and policies to the maximum through additional efforts.
Under special education zones, NEP (2020) aims to build gender-inclusion funds to inculcate equitable education for girls as well as other genders from special education zones and recommends providing boarding facilities to students from special education zones.
Although, the policy draft does not provide any clear definition of what constitutes these special education zones and how it plans to implement the schemes to their maximum. Special education zones could possibly work as a potential response to educational emergencies like conflict-prone areas, migration, natural calamities etc. However, between the vague definition of these special education zones and the lack of a clear implementation plan, it is very uncertain how these special education zones could possibly lead to crisis management. Not only how will these zones be determined, but also questions pertaining to an implementation plan are still equivocal. For instance, if, based on the policy recommendations, the government plans to set up a special education zone somewhere in a flood-prone area of Assam, how will students from such zones be inculcated? How will the gender inclusion funds be utilized? How the additional crisis that comes along with flood will be managed?
The role of Community and Creating Safe Spaces for students
Community and civil society can play an important role in mitigating educational emergencies. During crisis situations, the community can help in building support services for the children by providing food, shelter and spaces for learning. Neighbourhood people could be trained to utilize the socio-cultural environment of the students and further learn how to manage crisis situations. Boarding facilities should create safe spaces where the child feels loved and secure to continue their already adversely affected educational journeys. Suggestions from the United States Agency for International Development- USAID report entitled ‘Education in crisis situation’, i.e., street education, peace education, special teacher training, promoting transformational development etc, could be included within the ambit of NEP. In conclusion, NEP 2020 and the Indian education system need to focus on some of the unanswered questions pertaining to educational emergencies. To eventually create schools as safe spaces for children that initiates inclusive education for all.