COVID19 changed the whole educational infrastructure the whole world, including South Asian countries. Because of the pandemic, the educational system of South Asia must be restructured for the benefit of the young generation so that the future economy of South Asia does not plummet.
These observations were made at a Webtalk event, ‘Reimagining Education in South Asia,’ organised by the regional office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF South Asia) on 24 January 2021. This webtalk was held on the occasion of International Education Day. The participants discussed the educational sector problems of South Asia, during and post pandemic, and presented solutions on how to deal with the problems.
The said that India and Pakistan, two of the major countries in South Asia had to suffer economic instability because of the pandemic. Since both are developing countries, they have to depend on their education sector to turn young generation students into intellectual assets and bring economic development to their country. All schools have been shut down to protect the youth of both countries from Covid. Online classes are being conducted so that the flow of learning continues. The government needs to ensure that online classes are available to students of all backgrounds.
This webinar was moderated by Roshan Gandhi, CEO, City Montessori School, Lucknow. The panelists of the webinar were Atishi Marlena Singh, member, Delhi Legislative Assembly, Fajer Rabia Pasha, social entrepreneur and activist, and Vikas Jhunjhunwala, founder and CEO, Sunshine Schools.
Moderator Roshan Gandhi raised questions regarding the pandemic, how it affected educational institutions in both good and bad ways across South Asia and asked for general viewpoints from the panelists.
Fajer Rabia Pasha stated that it was a major challenge for them in Pakistan to make kids stay on the path of education during lockdown and continue learning. The good aspect was they were able to launch education programmes through broadcasting media, which led to a huge success. The bad aspect was that children who were in government schools or low budget private schools could not blend in with the new education system due to the lack of technology.
In reply to the moderator's question, Vikas Jhunjhunwala said that 50% of children were studying in private schools and 50% others in government schools. That’s 125 million in private and another 125 million in government schools. Among the 50% of private schools, 45% studies in low budget private schools, which charge less than 2000 rupees and which is 110 million people. He also gave a small brief on the economic history of India related to the education sector. He mentioned that in the effects of the pandemic on budget schools "has been a bit of a disaster." People whose income is low in India, have not been able to pay the school fees during the pandemic because the economy is not doing well.
“The impact of the pandemic in India has been huge,” Atishi Marlena Singh said. “Since children can’t access schools now, face to face education is not possible, lack of technology for online classes is present, and so what pandemic has done now is we are back to the early 90s where half the children population of India or more didn’t have access to education.” Moreover, she also mentioned the increase of inequality between elite private vs government and budget private schools because of the pandemic. She stated that early lockdowns had focused on foundational learning, SMS through phone, WhatsApp worksheets and sent teachers door to door so that children kept on learning.
Moderator Gandhi posed his second question to the panelists, asking what should be the role of the government to get the low income or low budget private schools back on track.
Vikas Jhunjhunwala feels that in order for budget private schools to survive, they should commence classes not online, but physically. For a long-term solution, he recommends that budget private schools should be seen as a legitimate entity in the eyes of the government just as elite private schools or government schools since most of the Indian population have low income.
Atishi agreed with Vikas, but shared a bit of a different sort of view. “People are more interested in sending their children to private schools, be it elite or budget because of the failure of public schools regardless the background they come from, she said, adding that budget private schools fall into crisis because they fall outside the "legal regulatory framework." She proposed that the government increase access and focus more on the quality of government schools.
“Although the regulatory body of education is present in Pakistan, the government should focus more on the quality of the schools because most schools lack quality. They can take some lessons from elite private schools, how they manage to cope with this pandemic situation,” Fajer Rabia Pasha strongly recommended. Low budget schools do not have a regulatory body so the government should increase the quality of both government and low budget schools keeping in mind the each segment of people in society. The government should come up with a short and long-term plan addressing the challenges. “The government should make a single national curriculum system for all schools so that every student receives the same quality of education,” she stated.
In the third question, topic arose about elite private schools having technological edge over other schools in India and the equality gap between elite private schools and rest of the other schools because of elite schools access over technology. Roshan Gandhi, the moderator, asked the panelists how they think the government and the rest of the other schools can stop that.
Answering the question, Atishi Marlena stated that technology is not the way for education and India is still not in the situation where they could just open all the schools again. She said in order to reduce the gap, the government should focus more on increasing the quality of government schools.
Fajer Rabia added that people in Pakistan who are most in majority are lower middle class family don’t have access to technology. Therefore, only a few of the majority of the people who are in elite private schools can access technology and continue class. Since the majority of people are forced to drop out of schools because of this situation, they think that opening all the schools would be the best option to reduce the gap.
“Technology is not a silver bullet to our problem. Technology can help but if a person does not know how to drive a car then it is not going to help just like the case of books and technology in education. You have to know how to use it right,” Vikas stated. He also mentioned that in order to reduce inequality, there must be an increase of competition. Indian government should ease their regulatory rules so that good intellectual people can open schools.
Taking a question from an audience, the moderator asked the panelists if it was high time that the government give the educational sector more economic, regulatory and profit making freedom because of pandemic. The panelists agreed that it was high time and it should be done according to the needs of the public.
The general observation was that the Covid-19 pandemic packed a massive impact in the education sector in South Asia. Experts of this region must come forward and present solutions on how to not let the education system collapse during this pandemic so that the young generation of this region is able to continue their education and bring stability to the economy.