With the school being closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, children are unable to attain quality education. It’s been a challenge for government, educators, institutions, parents, caregivers, and students around the world.
Many countries are handling this disruption by deploying different modes of learning. Educators around the globe are identifying ways to reach children on virtual platforms. These platforms are allowing teachers and students to connect over video calls to enable a classroom-like environment and to have interactive sessions for better learning. The current situation has accelerated the use of technology.
The government is providing various ways for teachers to connect students and students to continue their education even in the lockdown. The government has given access to an app called ‘Diksha’ which offers teachers, students, and parents engaging learning material relevant to the prescribed school material. Also, be it private and government schools, teachers are sharing lesson plans on WhatsApp groups and conducting to children via Zoom calls. This has been a medium for teaching through this pandemic.
This has given opportunities to teachers and students to access and learn about an alternative which is helping them to continue teaching and learning.
This seems so possible and very sorted however, does this give us a clear picture of whether this is reaching everyone? Whether all children are able to access education online?
This throws light on the Digital divide in India. Children from remote districts or poor backgrounds are not getting benefitted.
The Covid-19 situation has taught a lesson to all the teachers to be well equipped with the technology to continue classes online when the Covid-19-like situation arises in the future.
Now the government must act to ensure that, if any, in the future, Covid-19-like situation arises, the teachers must be well trained to handle classes online.
The government must take certain clear steps for the teachers to be able to use technologies in their classrooms or handle the classes online using the latest technologies.
The government can take the following steps to ensure that all the teachers are well equipped with the latest educational technologies and provide them opportunities to access the e-resources.
Train the teachers in the latest educational technologies
Many teachers in government schools are not aware of the technologies available for conducting classes online. The government must plan exclusive training for the teachers on 'use of the latest technologies'. Once the training is over, make sure that all the teachers using it for their students. The training should be limited to once in a life-time for a teaches. All the teachers must be trained on technologies every year as the technology gets updated every now and then.
Create a mobile app exclusively for the teachers to access the e-resources and conduct online classes
Once the teachers are trained in using educational technologies, they should have the access to them. The NCERT launched an app called Diksha for the teachers. Here, the teachers can access the e-resources. They can refer to the e-resources anytime, anywhere. But this app is not equipped with the technology of taking classes online for the students. Diksha application must be equipped with the technology handling online classes, like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet apps.
Make sure that all the schools have internet access and computers supplied
Having completed the above-discussed actions, the government must ensure that all the schools have access to the internet. If there is no internet and no computers, there no point in training the teachers. So the government must supply basic technological needs to the schools and make sure that they are used by the teachers regularly.
Outsource a tech expert for schools
Last, but not least. The government can consider outsourcing a Technical Expert for a year or two at the beginning so that he can help the teachers with any technical hiccups while using it in their classrooms. This idea will be of great benefit to the teachers. The Tech Expert's onsite support makes the teachers more confident in using technology in their schools and classrooms.
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