Reimaging of education during pandemic

During pandemic how many citizens of the world can realize the esthetics of the quotations given by the great scientist, visionary Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam. He once told about vision as "A vision is not a project report or plan target. It is an articulation of the desired end result in broader terms". Unlike the advanced countries, India was in need of a vision statement which stirs the imagination and motivation of the citizens of India. In order to address the potential risks and bottlenecks by the possible solutions, Planning Commission of India constituted a committee on Vision 2020 for India in June 2000 under the chairmanship of Dr. S.P. Gupta, member, Planning Commission. The initiative brought together over 30 experts from different fields. A wide range of issues like demography, employment, agriculture, finance, social security, health, woman empowerment, infrastructure, IT, environment, rural development, urbanization, governance, defense, global trends etc are investigated. The committee has also focused on the education to give a fairly comprehensive picture of India approaching 2020. Our vision of India in 2020 has been projected on the belief that human resource is the key area of overall development. The people, food security, employment, education, S&T capabilities, vocational training, health for all and vulnerability were taken into account for the capacity development of about 1330 million people by 2020. Considering education as engine to access the benefits of the information revolution from the world vistas, the vision has given high emphasis on the enhancement of literacy rate of the country. The committee has taken a serious concern of the qualitative improvements in education by reflecting a change in the pedagogy with the followingprime suggestions:

Ø To introduce practically relevant curriculum rather than traditional academic curriculum

Ø To insist on increase of capacity building of students rather than introduce memorization capacity

Ø To foster active interest and ability to create rather than passive learning

Ø To impart educational information by enhancing life values via independent thinking, self –reliance, individual thought development

Ø To energize tremendous expansion of educational institutions and classrooms. In this regard the committee suggested for the experimentation for the development of new methods for knowledge delivery by scientifically invented tools

Ø For interfacing link between scientists in universities and research institutes and practitioners in agriculture and industry

Ø To encourage the development and establishment of Science and Technology Entrepreneur Parks (STEPs) for promoting application of technologies, new business start-ups and employment

Ø For conglomeration of research through investment up to Rs 700 million by 2020 in the biotechnology sector in the field of bio-information, genomics, DNA technologies. Clinical studies and genetically modified cropsare also included.

Unfortunately, a couple of months ago, the world higher education which often discussed about the climate change as a priority among SGDs (sustainable Development Goals), artificial intelligence, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), e-commerce, e-journals, GPS system, ride- sharing apps, aggregator apps, food delivery apps, traffic signaling app and so on, all of a sudden, witnessed technology disruption due to sudden spurt in a biological disruption called COVID-19. Social distancing and isolation during COVID-19 forced the government to close the educational institutions in India. In such a condition digitization of education through the virtual system of education has become fruitful for stop gap arrangement especially for skill development and technical education.

We think, in this paradigm, the "Digital India" mission was a right step to accomplish VISION 2020 and to handle present crises to deliver teaching to the students in an uninterrupted way. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India has introduced a digital platform named as SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) for online skill-based courses covering higher education and high school students. SWAYAM is an indigenous (Made in India) IT platform for hosting the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

The Government of India lunched "SWAYAM PRABHA" a group of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite on 9th July 2017. The students can continue their education even while sitting at home. The details can be viewed in the website www.swayamprabha.gov.in.The DTH Channels cover the following:

Higher Education: Curriculum-based course contents at post-graduate and under-graduate levels covering diverse disciplines such as arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities, engineering, technology, law, medicine, agriculture, etc are available. All courses would be certification-ready in their detailed offering through SWAYAM, the platform being developed for offering MOOCs courses.

School education (9-12 levels): Modules for teachers' training as well as teaching and learning aids for Indian children to help them understand the subjects better and also help them in preparing for competitive examinations for admissions to professional degree programmesare available.

Curriculum-based courses: It can meet the needs of life-long learners of Indian citizens in India and abroad.

Career-based courses: They assist students (class 11th & 12th) to prepare for competitive exams.

Government of India also has virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility named as "National Digital Library of India (NDLI) under Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) with the project of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT).

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organization set up in 1961 by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education. It has facilitated a web app which is very small in size and requires less memory in the electronic gadgets. The app has given access to digital textbooks for all classes and the supplementary books, workshop, contests etc. streaming and e-Resources like access for audio, images, question banks etc.

Good news for the students is that they can now claim degree certificates from NAD (National Academic Depository (NAD)). It is a national system set up by Ministry of Human Resources Development and University Grants Commission by appointing NSDL Database Management Limited (NDML) to facilitate academic institutions to digitally, securely and quickly issue online academic awards to the students directly in their online NAD Account.

In spite of these facilities created by the Government of India, a critical thinking and empirical observation is required by the universities as a path bearer to nurture the Indian education during post COVID-19. The universities, schools and colleges still require many things which may have new looks in pedagogy of the Indian education so that challenges of Indian Vision 2020 can go ahead after the Coronavirus pandemic. The well planned education of promoting indigenous knowledge like indigenous techniques of water resource management, traditional method of preparing fertilizers, preserving food grains, utilizing local herbs, ensuring cleanliness and responsibilities towards people and community must be included in the curriculum. The Universities in India have to take these responsibilities as a major fund absorber of the country's educational budget. A mechanism should be designed through interface management whereby institutional resources are made available on the internet and anyone can have access to it. Universities, colleges and schools must venture to design curriculum with all these digital platforms created for the students to overcome to handle miseries in future. At the end, it is important that all administrative units of institutions should be electronically connected by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for performing educational activities sitting away from their work place.