Anwarul Haq Baig
NEW DELHI—Academicians, educationists and experts, who took part in a brainstorming session on solutions to the problems of learning loss due to the closure of schools and other educational institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic, have recommended the Government several strategies to bridge the learning gap that has widened due to the Covid-19.
The discussion was organized by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s (JIH) Markazi Taleemi Board here recently.
In his opening remarks, JIH Markazi Taleemi Board director Syed Tanveer Ahmed noted the huge learning gaps among students in the wake of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. M
Referring to various surveys, assessments and teachers’ observations across the world, including the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021, Mr. Tanveer Ahmed said that all surveys indicated the grim situation of learning loss and deprivation after Covid-19.
Explaining the issue, Mr. Tanveer said, “Students, teachers and parents are facing several problems due to it. For example, a student is attending the 7th class, but actually, he/she is fit for the 5th class, according to his/her academic age. This raises a big question that how this biological age and a mental or academic gap can be fixed?”
During his visit to several states in this connection, Mr. Tanveer said that teachers shared with him the problem of the learning gap, admitting that they have no clear or concrete solution to the issue. He cautioned that if the issue could not be immediately resolved, then many problems might emerge including an increase in dropout rates.
Presiding over the discussion, JIH Education Board chairman Mujtaba Farooq appealed for educational awareness, especially among the minority community.
He emphasized the need to create a sense of responsibility on an individual as well as collective levels for improving the education system as a whole.
Opposing the PPP model (public-private partnership), he said, “It is not good for the country. It will hit hard the children of the economically weaker sections as the PPP model would promote privatization of education and this will lead the country into a worse condition.”
A sharp dip in learning during the pandemic: Govt Survey
Speaking about the National Achievement Survey-2021 report, Mr. Sadat Hussain Khalifa, Research Scholar at JNU noted that the Union Ministry of Education surveyed in November 2021 to assess the learning loss due to Covid. Asserting that it is better to call it ‘learning deprivation’ as earlier mentioned by Mr. Tanveer, he said that because, unlike loss, deprivation involved an operational failure to provide for education.
The last NAS was conducted on 13th November 2017 to assess the learning outcomes of class 3rd, 5th and 8th students. It collected the data from about one lakh 10 thousand schools, two lakh 70 thousand teachers, and 2.2 million students through tests and questionnaires from 701 districts of 36 States and Union Territories of India.
Mr. Sadat said that the 2021 NAS survey was the largest sample survey, during the pandemic covering about 3.4 million students of 1.18 lakh schools in 733 districts of the country from both rural and urban areas.
Saying that the NAS report shows a sharp dip in the performance of students in almost all subjects, Mr. Sadat pointed out that all the students of the country across social groups and categories notably suffered in maths and sciences during the pandemic years.
WB schools the best performers in all parametres
Giving highlights of the NAS report, Mr. Sadat held that over 60% of the schools surveyed were either run by the Centre or the States or were government-aided institutions and, among them, West Bengal was one of the high-performing states in all parameters. He maintained that during the lockdown, when students were at home, mothers could have played a good role but unfortunately, the literacy levels of the mothers of surveyed students were not up to the mark, even about 78% of mothers were below 12th standard qualified, according to the NAS report.
Speaking on the issue, Prof. Ilyas Husain, former pro-vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), and former Dean, Faculty of Education, JMI, suggested adopting the government-run schemes like the one which was launched by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs called ‘Nai Manzil’ to provide the minority youths formal education and skills that would enable them to seek better employment and livelihood in the organized sector.
Pandemic popularized online learning
Pointing out that the problem of learning deficiency is not a new thing and it existed even before the pandemic, Prof. Ilyas stressed identifying different causes and factors behind the learning deficiency, before finding out their solutions. He said, “No doubt, the pandemic has caused great damages in all spheres of life, be it health, education or economic. However, it switched the education environment in favour of online learning, which we couldn’t even imagine, earlier.”
Continue online learning along with offline classes
Emphasizing utilizing this favourable environment for virtual learning to bridge the learning deficiency of students, Prof. Ilyas asked to initiate an online learning system along with offline classes, collaborating with different NGOs, for resolving the issue.
Suggesting some practical steps to resolve the problem, Mr. Mozaffar Ali from Delhi-based NGO All India Education Movement advised holding parent and teacher meetings and student counselling over the issue along with improving the infrastructure of the institutions.
Hold bridge classes along the lines of the ‘Shaheen model’
Similarly, Mr. Abdur Rashid of the All India Education Movement emphasized improving the infrastructures along with adopting strategies for holding some bridge classes for students. He asked to imitate the Karnataka-based NGO Shaheen Group of Institutions’ Academic Intensive Care Unit (AICU) model for bridging the learning gap among students. AICU is a unique approach to imparting high-quality education to the madrasa dropout and probable dropout students of School Grades 1st to 12th to bring them into the mainstream education system. Mr. Abdur Rashid also suggested adopting programmes like the Delhi government’s ‘Mission Buniyaad’ which aims to reduce the learning gap due to Covid which hit the school-going students.
It is pertinent to mention here that the mission, originally launched in 2018, after the NAS 2017, found that a majority of Class 3 to 5 students in government and aided schools performed abysmally in science, mathematics, and languages. Originally, it was a three-month programme to improve the learning levels of Class 3 to Class 8 of students of all government and municipal schools. However, after a gap of two years due to Covid-19, the mission has now restarted as a ‘summer camp’ to bridge the learning gap and help students improve their reading, writing, and basic mathematical ability.
Emulate “Mission Buniyaad” to improve learning outcomes
Giving point-wise solutions, Mr. Mohd. Shariq, principal of the School of Excellence Kalkaji, New Delhi, advised running programmes like ‘Mission Bunyaad’ based on baseline assessment to improve learning outcomes among students. For this purpose, he recommended dividing students based on the baseline assessment for bridge classes, first.
Explaining his second solution, Mr. Shariq suggested preparing an academic calendar to find out free days and time to conduct such bridge courses during free hours to fill the learning gap.
Discourage children from spending time on the use of mobile phone
Elaborating his third point related to the socio-emotional rehabilitation of students, Mr. Shariq held that children including other family members were spending more average time on mobile phones. According to him, a survey has revealed that the average per day per user time is over 2.5 hours, and one user checks his mobile over 40 times per hour while children are also rapidly becoming addicted to it after the pandemic. Besides, he added that kids were rapidly suffering socio-psychological issues like loneliness and aggression due to Covid, which distracted the children from the teaching and learning activity. As countermeasures, he recommended building the capacity of teachers, along with drawing children’s attention back to studies and adopting other ways to rehabilitate children.
Improve teachers’ capacity
Calling technology an equalizer in his fourth point, the principal of the School of Excellence has asserted that the right to equality is more conveniently given by technology because technology empowers everyone irrespective of the background of socio-economically marginalized or backward classes. Terming it a tool for empowerment, he advised the teachers to build their capacity, through various digital resources including Google classes, free digital courses designed by Google and Microsoft, e- repository, and e-contents. Urging teachers to tap the potential of technology, he opined that children were spending 2.5 to 3 hours on mobiles and even several digital companies were investing to gamify life skills and education.
Stressing the need to establish a better connection between students and teachers who were badly affected due to the pandemic, Mr. Shariq presenting his fifth point affirmed that it would remove various socio-psychological issues including aggression and lack of concentration among children. “Students will make fast progress in topics when they are well-connected with the classes and studies,” he added in his fifth point.
Go for collaboration with neighbouring schools to address learning losses of students
Asking to set up school clusters in his sixth and last point, Mr. Shariq asserted that 5 to 6 neighbouring schools should collaborate and work in coordination to address all the above issues whether it be ‘Mission Bunyaad like structure, capacity building, or addressing the socio-psychological issues. He stated that the All India Ideal Teachers Association (AIITA) could play a good role in it.
Saying that there are three big sections of the NAS 2021, students, teachers, and school management, Prof. Mohammad Faruq of NCERT emphasized thoroughly analyzing the data of all three sections, besides, organizing discussions with all the three stakeholders. Calling capacity building, the most important one, he instructed them to work on it, in an organized way instead of a cascade model. Endorsing to adopt schemes like Mission Bunyaad, and other programmes are conducting by different states, Prof. Faruq affirmed that the academic calendar, class clusters, baseline survey, capacity building, and remedial materials would give a better outcome.
Use all available measures to reduce learning losses due to pandemic
Drawing attention to implementation along with counter measures, Mr. Qazi Muhammad Miyan, administrator of the Scholar School, New Delhi, said that all available resources were implemented in his school when the learning process shifted from offline to online mode after the Covid.
Sharing experiences, Mr. Miya recounted that they provided their teachers, with training on the latest online teaching method without delay, and trained teachers, parents, and students to smoothly use online mode as well as they regularly took advantage of all available materials including PRAGYATA, online education guidelines prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). He informed that within a few months, they introduced the online free LMS, a digital learning platform for teachers that allowed them to engage with their students anywhere and anytime during the last two years of the Covid period.
Recounting the success story of his school, Mr. Miya further informed that the school management condensed the syllabus and prepared digital materials including learning videos for students which gave a good result, as well as prepared teachers to effectively cope with the problem of learning gap after commencement of physical classes through, various means, materials and government documents including Vidya Pravesh. “In addition to, abridging and redesigning the main syllabus, another internal or bridge course-like syllabus was prepared for each class to improve students’ learning abilities. Following the students-Centred-Learning method, assessment tools like observations, profiling of students, checklist and rating scale were prepared to check the progress of students,” he added.
Boosting the confidence level of students
Mr. Faryad Ali, a teacher of the Hamdard Public school, New Delhi drew attention to boosting the confidence level of the students which was shaken during the lockdown.
Commenting on the dismal condition of schools in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, state President, AIITA, West UP, pointed out that poor performance, chronic teacher absenteeism, shortage of staff, lack of materials and infrastructures already continued to plague schools in the state, before the pandemic. Lamenting that the new session began this month, but students are yet to get textbooks and uniforms, which usually become available only by August or September, he added that various schemes and programmes, which were being conducted to improve the learning situation, though, the pandemic wiped out all such activities.
Mr. Shakeel said that they were teaching students from old books until the new books and uniforms were not available to the children. He apprised the participants of the All India Ideal Teachers Association’s activities related to the teachers’ training or improving the learning situation.
Fill up vacancies in government schools
Summing up the discussion, Mr. Tanveer Ahmed said that firstly on a policy level, we would forward the remedial measures for learning gaps or deprivation to the Union Ministry of Education, which include demands to fill up vacancies in government schools immediately to contain the problem and form a committee to check or overcome weaknesses in Uttar Pradesh or other states in the field of education. “We will ask the Union government to implement in all the states good practices and experiments effectively adopted by some states. We will also call the government to derive a scheme and set aside some funds under the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, for minority run-institutions for removing the learning gap and upliftment of these institutions.” Secondly, he said, “the JIH Markazi Taleemi Board in collaboration with some major NGOs, who are engaged in the education field, will call a conference to discuss solutions of the learning loss and gap of the community’s students. Along with other solutions, we will first suggest introducing the AICU model in community-run institutions or in such schools where students of the community are studying in large numbers. For implementing the AICU on a large scale, resource persons and master-trainers in states should be produced, in collaboration with different NGOs.”
Focusing on community participation, Mr. Tanveer stressed the need to promote Vidya volunteers in the community and appealed to the community members including housewives to come forward for running AICU. In the last, he underlined to use of the unutilized spaces of the community including marriage halls, mosques, education institutions, etc. for it, where AICU could be established.
