The pandemic gave administrators an opportunity to re-examine the education system, but nothing has changed.
With the second wave of the pandemic, it is crucial to reflect on the past gaps and make appropriate course corrections.
How was the response?
Bureaucrats and administrators associated with educational institutions came up with notifications and circulars.
They were supposedly designed to enable academic activity.
But these orders disregarded the distress experienced by the academic community.
The unrealistic ‘one order fits all’ approach established the distress as a new feature of educational institutions.
The response should have helped institutions, faculty and students overcome the uncertainties.
But the biggest failure of the administrative response was that instead of doing the above, the focus was on unnecessary bureaucratic centralisation.
What was the lost opportunity?
The pandemic offered an opportunity to initiate sustainable reforms in the structure of the academic term and the nature of continuous assessment.
It provided an opportunity to -
work with teachers to address their concerns
encourage better student-teacher interactions
develop a better framework to determine the qualificatory grade for students to move to the next stage of study
But instead, the administrators showed rigid insistence on rote learning.
They refused to recognise the fact that marks obtained in exams are not the only markers of a student’s capabilities.
They also showed reluctance to engage with fellow academicians and teachers to nurture academic engagement.
All these ended up becoming a source of public distress.
The exam system, which has been crying out for significant overhaul, could have been reformed, but was missed.
The revised academic calendars introduced in 2020 undermined proper and constructive academic interaction between teachers and students.
While teachers conducted online classes daily, administrators were obsessed with monitoring them.
They showed little interest in enquiring about the health and difficulties of their colleagues and staff.
They failed to consider initiatives to assess the mental health of teachers, non-teaching staff and students.
At times it seemed as if they did not fully understand the qualitative and operational differences between online and offline classes.
The practice exposed the outdated understanding of technology and lack of understanding of the contemporary challenges of classroom interactions.
What is the challenge now?
The second wave is now occurring at a time when students in schools and higher educational institutions transition from one level to another.
This has exposed the administrative inadequacies of the past year.
It is becoming obvious that the pandemic would disrupt the academic schedule for more than 2 years.
What is the way forward?
There is a pressing need for bureaucratic administrators to consult academic stakeholders and move ahead.
It is time for institutions to reconsider their approach towards exams and grading.
The need is to reduce the pressure on the students and discourage them from memorising to prepare for set and repetitive exam questions.
Attention should be given to continuous assessment and evaluation of students.
A system geared to assess the students’ understanding rather than ability to memorise and reproduce should be in place.
School boards and universities need to alter the pattern of question papers.
The idea of open book examinations needs to be developed.
The decision-makers in educational institutions will need to display administrative acumen and show willingness to learn from mistakes.
The bureaucracy must recognise that universities and schools have their own academic considerations.
They should understand that the standardisation of academic requirements, calendars, and teaching and learning processes are not feasible.
The decisions should not be knee-jerk responses such as cancelling and/or postponing exams and remaining fixated with the completion of the academic term.
Decisions taken should help secure the academic future of students, teachers and institutions.
