By Ankit Arora, Founder, Saarthi Education
“Atma Nirbhar banaiye,” the words suggested by our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi transcend the immediate concerns of safety, and instead presents itself as a motto for the society at large. The post-Covid world will be witnessing the advent of a new era of self-reliance in India. The Indian education system has, in its core, always espoused the concept of self-reliance. The pattern of syllabus has always centered round the practice of self-study, wherein the student will hone his knowledge by regular practice. Self-study has always been regarded as a practice of a good student, although with the commercialization of the education system this practice was weakening its hold.
With the entire world scrambling to find its ground in the face of the unexpected pandemic, the education system in India tried to tackle the situation by leveraging the medium of digitization. As the physical classrooms and tutoring institutions became redundant in the face of social distancing, the indian students reverted to the period of self-reliance. While the decorum and discipline during the initial days was precarious at best, parents proactively encouraged in order to establish an order in their children’s lives. A very prominent proverb states, “Self-help is the best help.” This old adage has never been more true, particularly in the case of students lately. Living in the times where they have to facilitate their own learning with little to no help from the outside forces. While various online courses have placed themselves in the role of a savior for students in the time of the hour of crisis, it is only a viable option for a few. Moreover the question revolving around the supervision of students remains unchanged. They are still expected to be self reliant to a large extent throughout the teaching-learning process.
Future of Education is a self-sufficient setup
Edtech aims to break the ‘factory model’ that has been followed in India since time immemorial. The current education system lacks the scope for personalization or customization of education, as the students are viewed as a collective instead of individuals. Edtech giants capitalize on the different needs of diverse disciplines, as well as students, and strategize accordingly to make it a productive teaching-learning experience for the students. The pedagogical relationship can be replicated and magnified via EdTech because it has the bandwidth to focus on individual performances of students in higher education as well. While redundancy in content and outdated teaching methods are a big concern, it is worth noting that these two will change automatically when EdTech is adopted by the masses. The Edtech sector must adapt easier accessible tools and an inclusive approach in order to become the future of India’s education system.
A new benchmark has been set through NEP
The NEP has presented itself to the masses as a revolutionary step for the governance, delivery and financing of education. It is a mammoth undertaking which predicts itself as one of the world’s finest education systems. Freedom and flexibility are two key pillars of self-reliance which it proposes to modify in order to suit the needs and aspirations of modern society. It is a major shift in terms of impact as the students from the fear and confusion of opting streams. The societal pressure pertaining to the selection of a stream won’t be a hassle for students anymore. The best part is that the students will be provided with a flexible range of subjects to choose from, allowing them the opportunity to pursue their interests by clubbing Maths, Science and Arts. The vocation in middle school is setting up the gears by implanting the seed of self sufficiency into them.
Classroom communication has been directed towards competency based learning, strengthening self-reliant education in India. We as countrymen of this holistic nation need to understand it and indulge ourselves more into such practices.
