If the global pandemic does anything good, the digital turn towards online education would certainly be a contender. And even as the pandemic recedes, the quality that now creates the need is poised to stay. Even as students across the country return to brick and mortar schools, the virtual embodiment of the classroom is unlikely to disappear into the ether. So the hybrid model is seriously considered, which offers the best of both worlds—the socio-emotional bonding of physical classroom and wider access to education via online medium.
Keeping in mind the need for accessibility, equity and quality, the government launched its PM e-Vidya program in 2020, so that students cannot attend class. With schools now reopening, instead of suspending the initiative, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget speech on February 1 that the government would expand its ‘One Class, One TV programme’ from 12 to 200 channels as a “complementary”. Will extend to provide Creation of a flexible mechanism for teaching and education delivery”. This was the first official acknowledgment of the fact that the country’s children had lost nearly two years of formal education, especially in government schools and rural areas, and that loss needed to be compensated.
“High quality e-content will be developed in all spoken languages for distribution through internet, mobile phones, TV and radio and digital teachers,” the Finance Minister announced. “A competitive mechanism will be put in place for development of quality e-content by teachers to equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes.” Simultaneously, Sitharaman announced the setting up of virtual labs and skilling e-labs to encourage critical thinking and foster a learning environment. To address the issue of seat shortage, a digital university with world class universal education has been established.
Launched in May 2020 as part of the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat programme, PM e-VIDYA sought to integrate all efforts in digital/online/on-air education, which was termed as “coherent multi-mode access to education”. “It is called. Incorporating multiple components (see PM decoding e-VIDYA) like DIKSHA, NISHTHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM Prabha TV, Mukta Vidya Vani, Shiksha Vani, IITPAL and e-abhyas, the program aims to cover the entire field of school education. through which it is transmitted. Miscellaneous Media.
Apart from the online portal, an important component of the PM e-Vidya program are the 12 DTH channels under Swayam Prabha TV to support and reach out to students who do not have access to the internet. Classified as a “Class-One TV Channel” initiative, it provides CBSE curriculum and curriculum-based course material for students studying under the National Institute of Open Schooling. It is broadcast on a 24 x 7 basis in partnership with DD Free Dish, Tata Play, Dish TV, Airtel and Jio TV mobile app. As of mid-February, 1,502 30-minute live interactive sessions have been broadcast for classes 1 to 10, covering approximately 751 hours. For classes 11 and 12, 149 live interactive sessions of 60 minutes each have been telecast in the same duration, covering a total of 149 hours.
Many academicians have appreciated the government’s announcement to increase the channels from 12 to 200. Sonali Jain, Co-Chair of Education Committee at PHDCCI believes that these provisions of complementary education, emphasis on critical thinking and methodological approach will prepare the students for an intuitive knowledge. Transition from learning to practical experience. Others say that the new channels will bridge India’s digital divide and improve overall learning outcomes for students. Shilpi Sahu, chairperson of Sai International Education Group, Odisha, says, “A stable internet is a constant hurdle that students from rural areas face.” “This is where expansion of channels will come to the rescue as most of the rural sections will now have access to class-wise basic study material through DTH service on their TVs and that too in their regional languages for better understanding.” The 2021 National Sample Survey, published last year by ICRIER and LIRNEAsia, a think-tank focused on digital policy, alerted us to the fact that only 20 per cent of school children in India had access to distance learning opportunities during the pandemic. Those who attended only half of the live online classes. A study by the Azim Premji Foundation in 2020 reached a similar conclusion when it found that nearly 60 percent of school children in India cannot access online learning opportunities. Another study by Oxfam found that even among students in urban private schools, half of parents reported problems with Internet signal and speed. A third was battling mobile data costs.
Government data also confirmed the poor state of virtual education in government schools. States are provided funds for ICT labs and digital classrooms under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) component of the centrally sponsored Samagra Shiksha Yojana. According to UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) data for 2019-20, only 119,581 schools in India had internet access and all government schools had 65,356 ICT labs and 29,178 digital classrooms. The central government approved the construction of 14,868 ICT labs and 58,534 classrooms next year. Yet, the total number of laboratories and digital classrooms is not even 10 per cent of the number of government schools in India—1,116,932.
However, not all experts are convinced about these channels, which are compensating for the “learning loss” due to the closure of physical classes. A statement from the Academic for Action and Development (AAD) said, “With the vast digital divide in India and resource- and gadget-scarred households, we need more schools and higher education institutions on the ground than in cyberspace.” Is.” A group of teachers from Delhi University. Epidemiologist and public policy expert Chandrakant Laharia believes that “setting up a TV channel cannot reduce the adverse impact of the last two years”. Others claim that the government may have ensured the delivery of content through these TV channels, but that it cannot stand for a teacher to “actually teach” and answer questions in real time, even if The same education ministry officials say that experts conduct live interactive sessions on Skype. these channels.
The budgetary priorities of the government also do not give much hope. Not only has the budgetary allocation been meager since the inception of PM e-VIDYA, but this year has also seen a steep fall – from Rs 50 crore in 2021-22 to just Rs 0.1 crore this year. In fact, the budgetary allocation for the entire digital e-learning program has come down to Rs 421 crore from Rs 645.61 crore this year. There is no specific allocation for digital universities in the budget. Professor Tarun Jain of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad has termed the investment as “modest” against the huge learning loss. Lead School co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta also feels that the budgetary allocation should not promote virtual education over physical schooling.
Not just online education, budgetary support has lagged behind the reformist intent of the new education policy in 2020. On paper, the allocation for education has increased by 31 per cent in the last five years. But the actual spending has not increased much (see where is the money for education?). In fact, the budgetary allocation saw a decline in the very next year of the launch of the NEP – from Rs 99,311.52 crore to Rs 93,224.31 crore. This year the government has allocated Rs 1.04 lakh crore for education.
Top education ministry officials, on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the government was aware of the need for an increase in budgetary allocation, but blamed the current low allocation for poor utilization of funds by states. Education is a state subject and state governments implement centrally funded schemes. “The funds are allocated in the budget keeping in view the past use of the funds,” says an education ministry official. “Many states have failed to utilize the funds sanctioned to them.”
Actual expenditure has been lower than the budgeted allocation since 2018-19, amid growing demand to increase the allocation for education from the current 2 per cent to 6 per cent of GDP. Many states have not even utilized the sanctioned funds. Based on the requirement of the state, the education ministry provides Rs 6.4 lakh for setting up an ICT laboratory and Rs 2.4 lakh for a digital classroom. In 2021-22, out of Rs 956.8 crore sanctioned for digital classes, states spent only Rs 9.8 crore. Barring Nagaland, Rajasthan and Sikkim, no state spent a single penny on digital classes. In their defence, state governments claim that due to school closures during the pandemic, spending on digital or physical infrastructure stalled.
Apart from the blame game, both the central and state governments need to focus their energies on building a holistic model to help students learn and experience what they have done in the two years they have sacrificed for the pandemic. Lost it. As author and educationist Mita Sengupta says, PM e-VIDYA may be an education safety net that provides a multilingual and multi-local complementary learning system, but its success will depend on its inclusion and expansion. For this to happen, the Center and the states must cooperate not only with adequate funding but also with a plan for implementation.
Decoding PM e-Vidya with Shelly Anand