Is education as we currently see in the system serving students and their communities? Is it preparing students for the future world of work and to meet the challenges of a highly complex, unpredictable, and volatile world?
School students at Karnataka's Pattadakkal, a UNESCO world heritage site. there is a need to move beyond static curriculum and standardised testing to a holistic approach in curriculum and assessment that equally focuses on subject competencies and social and emotional competencies. The sculpture in the foreground is of Ravana lifting Kailasa, Virupaksha temple, Pattadakkal. (Prasanna RS)
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), which gives a substantial overview of education in the country in terms of school enrolment, attendance rates, and learning levels was published recently.
The ASER 2022 report is particularly significant since it provides insights on the effects of school closure, specifically on the learning levels of students, after a gap of four years. (The last country report was released in 2018.)
We look at some of the welcome changes that the ASER report focused on and also highlight a few fundamental questions that emerge on helping public education systems to prepare children and young people in the country for the highly unpredictable future.
If we are to compare the 2022 ASER findings with previous years, the proportion of children currently unenrolled in school in the 6–14 age group is 1.6 percent — almost half of what was observed in 2018.
In terms of reading levels, the proportion of children in grade 3 who could read a grade 2 level text was 27.2 percent in 2018 but it has dropped to 20.5 percent in 2022.
In numeracy, the proportion of children in grade 3 who could do at least subtraction was 28.1 percent in 2018 but it has dropped to 25.9 percent in 2022. But comparing the data from three states — Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal — where learning levels were assessed in 2021, it is evident that recovery in 2022 is impressive, considering the fact that the learning levels had fallen below the 2014 levels in 2021 and schools were closed for about two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the data from these three states cannot be generalised for all of India, from the data trends it presents, it is apparent that the efforts within schools at learning recovery post the reopening of schools are working.
From the 2022 report, at least to an extent, it seems that the efforts at increasing enrolment, helping students stay in school and enabling learning recovery — specifically numeracy and literacy — are effective.
At this juncture when a majority of students are completing high school in India, it is important to ask: Is education as we currently see in the system serving students and their communities? Is it preparing students for the future world of work and to meet the challenges of a highly complex, unpredictable, and volatile world?
Drop in dropout rate
Currently at work, most people spend considerably more of their working hours doing non-routine tasks that require higher-order, analytical thinking, and interpersonal skills.
The Future of Jobs report 2020 says that by 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines, and algorithms.
These trends point to the need to develop abilities and skills in students that are beyond answering factual questions on a set static curriculum.
Moreover, studies prove that though intellectual competencies matter, what helps individuals to succeed in their jobs and life in general are their social and emotional competencies — the ability to form interpersonal relationships, collaborate, resolve conflicts, manage emotions, and others.
These skills are paramount for students who come from adverse backgrounds as stressful events they encounter on a daily basis are more when compared to their peers. Additionally, the ability to manage emotions such as frustration and anxiety also has an important role to play in learning.
Thus, there is a need to move beyond static curriculum and standardised testing to a holistic approach in curriculum and assessment that equally focuses on subject competencies and social and emotional competencies.
There is an emerging consensus among many stakeholders in education that the process of learning matters as much as outcomes.
But for far too long, our classrooms have been characterised by authoritarian relationships between students and teachers, where teachers control and command the classroom.
This approach is restricting as it overlooks the knowledge and life experiences of the students and also their ability to contribute effectively in classrooms. It also places the onus of leading the learning on teachers, other than collaborating with the students.
Transforming the role of a teacher to a facilitator who creates a supportive environment for learning can create space for student agency and leadership to flourish in classrooms.
When it comes to learning experience, it is also important to note that students experience classroom concepts and learning differently based on their socio-economic backgrounds. And so, it is pertinent that the school environment, classrooms, learning spaces, and educational policies are designed with an understanding of learner backgrounds, specifically systemic barriers such as caste and gender-based discrimination.
Effort also needs to be invested in making the learning experience inclusive and collaborative.
Education in India and many colonised countries has been heavily influenced by colonial models that are often disconnected from local history and culture of communities.
This not only makes it harder for students to relate to what is being taught in class, but also imposes Eurocentric ways of seeing and understanding the world. Furthermore, it also distances students from their culture and history.
To make education work for our communities and local contexts, it is important that we integrate local knowledge into the curriculum in consultation with community leaders and parents.
The ASER 2022 suggests high community and parental involvement in learning during the two-year-long school closures.
Using this momentum, schools and classrooms could consider actively working on parental involvement and community consultation to design learning and education that help address community challenges and promote community progress.
Though ASER 2022 gives us reasons to celebrate, it is important that we begin thinking about some of the fundamental questions about learning and education: its purpose, methodology, and outcomes from the lens of students, teachers, and communities — and brainstorm solutions that address these challenges innovatively.
While we concede that the questions shared above are in no way an exhaustive list to help rethink education, nor is it easy to design a system that adequately answers various stakeholders’ expectations out of 12+ years of schooling, there is an urgent need to take concerted efforts and action to include life skills within school curriculums, improve the experience of learning, and involve the community to help our young people thrive.
(Daya Sajeevan is associate manager, Research and Impact, at Dream A Dream. Her research interests include child wellbeing, child rights and education. Dr Sreehari Ravindranath is associate director, Research and Impact, at Dream a Dream, Bengaluru. These are the personal views of the authors)
