Management Journal for Advanced Research

Introduction

An unprecedented worldwide lockdown has not only made our life miserable, but also imposed us to live inside our homes. Extremely rare events like this are witnessed only once in a lifetime or two. Indian government announced we need to adjust to this environment, by maintaining social distance among themselves (MoHA, 2020).

The lockdown effect shuts almost all sectors which made large impact on economy in most of the countries (Stefana et al., 2020).Education sector also came to face the drawback of pandemic but with time online teaching was introduced so that education balance could be made as all other sector could be shut down and started but education is an ongoing process.

Meanwhile the NEP,2020 formulation was going on which also includes the pillars for development of education. The global education development agenda reflected in the Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by India in 2015 -it seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.

To achieve such a goal reframing and rethinking is required to achieve the critical targets and goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The NEP 2020 replaces the previous National Policy of Education of 1986. In January 2015, a committee under the supervision former Cabinet Secretary T. S. R. Subramanian started the discussion process for the New Education Policy.

Based on the report of the committee, in June 2017, the draft of the NEP was submitted in 2019 by a group led by former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan. The write up of New Education Policy (DNEP) 2019 was later released by Ministry of Human Resource Development, followed by a number of public consultations.T74 Draft of NEP contains 484 pages. The Ministry undertake a rigorous consultation process in formulating the draft policy: "Over two lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6,600 blocks, 6,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), 676 districts were received." (Venkateshwarlu, 2021) Digital deprivation has been an ongoing issue in India even before the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

promoting multilingualism and the power of language in teaching and learning;
life skills such as communication, cooperation, teamwork, and resilience;
focus on regular formative assessment for learning rather than the summative assessment that encourages today’s ‘coaching culture ’;
extensive use of technology in teaching and learning, removing language barriers, increasing access for Divyang students, and educational planning and management;
respect for diversity and respect for the local context in all curriculum, pedagogy, and policy, always keeping in mind that education is a concurrent subject;
full equity and inclusion as the cornerstone of all educational decisions to ensure that all students are able to thrive in the education system;
synergy in curriculum across all levels of education from early childhood care and education to school education to higher education;
teachers and faculty as the heart of the learning process – their recruitment, continuous professional development, positive working environments and service conditions;
a ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework to ensure integrity, transparency, and resource efficiency of the educational system through audit and public disclosure while encouraging innovation and out-of-the-box ideas through autonomy, good governance, and empowerment;
outstanding research as a corequisite for outstanding education and development;
continuous review of progress based on sustained research and regular assessment by educational experts.

Digitization of Education

“Digital education is generating new learning opportunities as students engage in online, digital environments and as faculty change educational practices through the use of hybrid courses, personalized instruction, new collaboration models and a wide array of innovative, engaging learning strategies. Furthermore, a 21st century view of learner success requires students to not only be thoughtful consumers of digital content, but effective and collaborative creators of digital media, demonstrating competencies and communicating ideas through dynamic storytelling, data visualization and content curation.”

"The learning gap is likely to widen across high, middle and low-income families, as children from economically disadvantaged families cannot access remote learning."(Economic Times, 2022) MoSPI did a survey to look over the access and use of information technology computer included devices like, desktop computer, laptop computer, notebook, netbook, palmtop, tablet (or similar handheld devices). However, Smartphone was not considered as computer. If a household member of age 5 years and above used internet to find, evaluate and communicate information from any location during the last 30 days preceding the date of survey, via any device, like, desktop, laptop, palmtop, notebook, netbook, smartphone, tablets, etc., it was considered as use of internet.

Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation 2019

According to NSSO data, only 4.4% of rural households and 23.4% of urban households own computers. Moreover, while 42% of urban households have a computer with an internet connection, the same is available to only 14.9% of rural households. The above table clearly defines the rural urban digital divide.

Increasing affordability of smartphones, growth in number of users in rural India, as well several government initiatives have led to the expansion of India’s smartphone user base in recent years [5].

However, on the other side of this growth is the fact that there are still around 800 million people that do not have access to smartphones. The audio-visual content in online learning, whether in the form of video calls or downloadable/streamable videos, requires high-speed 4G internet.

As per the ICEA report quoted above, in 2018, India had approximately 277 million VoLTE capable devices and more than 50% 4G device penetration across India. However, the share of smartphone penetration was only around 25% in rural areas.

When it comes to addressing the digital divide as discussed previously, the NEP recommends use of television, radio and community radio for 24*7 broadcasts of educational programmes, including in regional languages. Whether such programmes can replace online classes and e-learning tools, and provide the same quality of education to students who do not have access to smartphones or the internet is up for debate.

Certainly, the NEP doesn’t seem to offer any specific recommendations to bridge the gender gap in digital literacy, nor does it directly address the physical and mental health consequences of online classes. It also doesn’t seek to cover issues faced by students with disabilities while accessing online learning methods.

It can be concluded that though the NEP offers some progressive initiatives for development of e-learning tools and seeks to encourage equal access to technology, it misses the mark when it comes to addressing the grave structural challenges that characterise digital learning in India.

Going forward, it is imperative to bring about convergence between goals of NEP and flagship schemes like Digital India that seeks to expand access to communication infrastructure and internet connectivity across country. A key focus, therein, has to be on bridging gender gap in internet usage and access to smartphones, and simultaneously making digital learning disability-friendly.

References

1. Bikas C. Sanyal. (2001). New functions of higher education and ICT to achieve education for all. Paper prepared for the Expert Roundtable on University and Technology-for- Literacy and Education Partnership in Developing Countries, International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, September 10 to 12, Paris.
2. Crawford, J., Butler-Henderson, K., Rudolph, J., & Glowatz, M. (2020). COVID-19: 20 countries’ higher education intra-period digital pedagogy responses. Journal of Applied Teaching and Learning (JALT), 3(1), 1-20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7.
3. Himmelsbach, V. (2019) Pros & cons of technology in the classroom in 2019. Retrived on 23 April 2022. Available at: https://tophat.com/blog/6-pros-cons-technology-classroom/.