Corona Lock down and Schools

Corona Lock down and Schools

Dr Nasir Javed

The revelation of Quran started with the word Iqra. Read.  

The schools and all educational institutions are closed for 3 months at least, may be more. Loss of students’ time might be a bigger collateral damage than even the economy.

In the current scenario, apart from health (including the psychological issues of anxiety, depression and stress), the two key sectors of society and government that are worst affected by the lock down are economy and education. 

First the Education:

While schools were closed abruptly, there was no preparation, like we have prior to summer vacations and thus students and their parents are at a loss as to how to compensate for this loss of time. And this is irreparable loss. We also need to keep in mind that the quantity and quality of our education as a nation, is one of the lowest, even when the schools are open. Hence the worry is more serious. Presence of directionless kids at home is a cause of considerable stress for the parents as well, especially when the young & immature minds are being constantly bombarded with morbidity & death related news & discussions.  

Some of the higher learning institutions and high-end private schools are resorting to e-learning through online modules and lectures. Well done. While this is certainly appreciable, what about the more than 95% schools that won’t / can’t arrange this. Even Government is talking about e-learning. Not all students would have the luxury of net or computers to benefit from e learning. This elite thinking is similar to the one of city planners, who build just underpasses & signal free corridors and no pedestrian walkways. Same elite thinking is working here as well. The divide between the haves and the have-not’s shall further widen. Justified?

By the way, do we have any idea of the way majority of the schools in Pakistan are functioning? The quality of teaching, teachers, facilities and learning techniques? I am referring to around 100,000 public schools and another 100,000 private schools. Now whenever someone talks of private schools, we only think of The City school, Lahore Grammar, the Beaconhouse and the likes. Again the same elite mindset. This type of schools cater to less than 10% (max), of the private school students. More than 90% of private schools (around 90,000+) are pseudo English medium schools, where quality of content and teaching is pathetic, with most of the teachers, just educated and untrained. Majority have a lower standard than most of the public schools.  We need to cater for this 90% as well, may be on priority.

Starting April 01, the Government of Punjab has initiated the Taleemghar online and cable series. I have seen some of the ‘animated videos’ on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSqvoxWiOwA as cable TV in my area still has no such channel. Honestly speaking, found these quite boring with unnecessary music and lifeless animations. Who plays music in a class room? These might be good for pre-school & KG kids. But here we are talking about very serious curriculum to be covered from class 1-12, and these animated cartoons are certainly not suitable.

Why do we jump straight to hi-end IT based systems, when simple tools and technologies are available, much less expensive and many times more accessible. Let’s approach the problem, in a more practical manner, closer to reality, with a wider access.

Government should plan for a Television based learning program. Setting up a satellite channel is not a rocket science, and neither requires any World Bank Loan. There are already many channels and government can even lease some of these. (Would have side effect of reducing some anxiety and tension, if we close some of these fear spreading channels!).

Am sure we do realize that TV is the most powerful & pervasive medium that we have. In many cases, even more powerful than internet and social media. So let’s make use of this simple tool that is available in most of the houses. If we can afford full time channels for sports, cricket, old movies, drama, music and what not, why not these five or six channels for the most critical necessity.

We have the experience of Allama Iqbal Open University and the Virtual University. All we need is a good teacher, a few students, a green board and a chalk. A couple of students in the room, sitting at a distance, would be needed for question answer as this improves learning. A teacher in an empty room is less effective. The teacher should teach these students, just like in a normal school. Video record these and make a library, cataloged class wise, subject wise, chapter wise and session wise. These should be exactly in accordance with the syllabus and text books, so students can relate to these and cover their syllabus.  Some of the good examples are  https://www.youtube.com/edkasa ,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dci5dbTpWwA  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAedHfzkuM8 , or even this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pncGpyOin_M .

We need six satellite channels to broadcast these lectures, according to a fixed time table. One channel for class 1-5 Urdu Medium. Second for class 6-10 Urdu medium. Third for class 1-5 English medium. Fourth for class 6-10 English medium. And fifth channel for Intermediate classes.  

There is also a serious need for teachers’ training. The teachers are free for these 3 months. Let there be a sixth TV channel dedicated to teachers training, with a structured curriculum for these 3 months. Once the situation returns to normalcy, the teachers be asked to appear for an examination, based on this curriculum, with an incentive for those who pass.

The TV schedule shall keep students under a regime and they would follow these time schedules and this discipline is critical. The flexibility of online modules is not suited for school level.  The scheduling should be such that every student gets a 30 min session followed by a 30 – 60 minute break. This scheduling shall facilitate that if a family has students of different classes, each one should be able to get around 2-3 hours a day, with breaks. We can start at 8 am and continue till 6 pm.  

Every day the sessions should end with some homework as well, like a normal school. Parents would be happy to supervise this home work.

On a weekly basis, there should be a test, based on what is taught and on Monday, the solution should be shown on TV. Thus students can self-mark the test, or seek help from parents and elder siblings. Weekends could be used for revision of sessions, in case someone has missed or is a slow learner.

Once the system is settled, this can continue during summer vacations and even after that, to make up for the lost time and even as a permanent feature for improving the overall quality of learning. We certainly need desperate measures to improve the quality of our education, not only for the elite classes, but for everyone. 

Quality education is the best social equalizer, in the long run.

University students are mature and educated enough to be catered through online learning modules and lessons and HEC can support and regulate them.

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