The Freedom To Get An Education

Despite technological advancements, close to half the country’s children don’t have access to knowledge and learning, even when they go to schools

- Madhav Chavan

The issue of access to education has once again become a matter of priority ever since schools started shutting down in mid-March. Until then it was said that more than 97 percent children all over rural India have access to school, although about 50 percent in class 5 cannot read a class 2 passage, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). We had successfully created access to classrooms and to input provision of educational processes called schooling, but have not done too well in the area of enabling children to access knowledge and skills. A new education policy that lays down a pathway to a less rigid education system focusing on outcomes has now been announced. It probably reflects the general desire for greater freedom to access knowledge. But before we get there, the current situation deserves a look.

By the end of March, schools in many countries that were experiencing the pandemic had started reopening their schools with caution, while Indian schools had just begun to shut down. As I write this, the Covid-19 situation seems to be coming under control in Delhi and Mumbai, but in other parts of the country the numbers are growing day by day. Yet, businesses are opening slowly and are adjusting to a ‘new normal’.

Schools were shut down in one shot, but reopening them is not going to be as easy. It will be difficult for systems, private or public, to convince parents that schools are going to be safe places to be in. Everyone is going to wait for a vaccine. It is anybody’s guess at this time as to how long things will take to settle down, and for us to figure out a ‘new normal’ for schools. How different it will be from the old normal is a good question to ask.