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Event Alert!
The NCEE in collaboration with CESI, TISS CETE and ITfC is organizing a webinar on Exploring the Education Technology Landscape.
Speaker: Prof. Rajaram Sharma, Former Joint Director, CIET, NCERT.
4.00 - 5.30 PM IST, Saturday 26th Nov. 2022.
Read more
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Around Children's Day is a good time to reflect on the raw deal most children in India get!
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We celebrate Children’s Day in India every November. Social media is abuzz with posts on how we shouldn’t forget the child within us. Yet, we hardly give any thought to the rights of the children in our country. Come cyclones, heavy rainfall, air pollution, pandemic, the quick or unthinking response is to close schools. A case in point is the closure of schools in New Delhi earlier this month. While the concern about the health and well-being of children is valid, school closures as a go-to response appear to not consider critical factors such as aggravating the learning loss from the earlier pandemic-caused school closures, the loss of children’s daily nutrition on stopping of the mid-day meal, and the loss of the safe school space, especially for children from socioeconomically marginalized communities.
Disaster response and recovery needs to be much more nuanced, local and should reflect deliberation, informed choice and stakeholder participation. Schools should be permitted to take the decision to stay open, partly open (for some grades, some days, some duration and combinations of these and related parameters), or closed in consultation with their parent bodies (School Management Committees). If the nomenclature ‘school management committee’ has to have any meaning, they should have a role to play in such decisions. In future, the dictum, “Schools should be the last to close and the first to open” must prevail.
Read the NCEE's statement on the Delhi school closure here.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The NCEE's ESG charts the way ahead on supporting state governments with education resumption
The NCEE’s Education Support Group (ESG) was formed with the intention of curating a repository of resources to support state education departments in school reopening after more than eighteen months of pandemic-induced lockdowns and resulting academic learning losses. While schools have reopened over the last years and there has been some acknowledgement of learning loss, not all state governments have been able to evolve effective models to address these gaps. Re-orienting back to offline classes involves addressing several issues like loss of learning, having lost the skills of learning, including socially appropriate and responsible behavior, parental and teacher attitudes, emotional distress endured by children and detoxification from the widespread use of the digital medium. There is a need for a space for educational discourse to address these and several other issues affecting the educational recovery process – through resources, awareness building and capacity building. The ESG hopes to evolve into such a space.
To join and contribute to the ESG, write to us.
You can access the repository of open access resources put together by the ESG here.
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NCEE helps Tamil Nadu set up an OER Teachers' portal
Tamil Nadu’s Samagra Shiksha department initiated the Tamil Nadu Teachers Portal program this year as part of which resources are being developed to address diverse learner needs. To organize and provide a curated view of these resources, the department has established an Open Educational Resources (OER) portal using the Free and Open Source (FOSS) MediaWiki platform. This is aimed at providing multiple resources to teachers for supporting classroom teaching, deepening teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge and serving as a platform for teachers to share their experiences and resources. The initial setting up of the portal was done in a workshop organized by the department, and facilitated by members of the NCEE, where teachers of all subjects collaboratively worked together to create and curate resources.
The portal can be accessed here.
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NCEE to undertake study documenting Tamil Nadu's initiatives to address pandemic-induced learning gaps
The pandemic has resulted in significant learning deficits among children across socio-economic divides. Children from marginalized communities with limited access to the internet and devices have had no learning opportunities whatsoever during this period. What has been more worrisome, however, is the ‘business as usual’ approach adopted by schools and states across the country without any concrete steps being taken to seriously address childrens’ learning deprivation. The Tamil Nadu government is one of the exceptions in this regard and has been taking steps in the right direction through a host of pioneering programs – Illam Thedi Kalvi, Ennum Ezhuthum, Nam Palli, Nam Perumai and Magizh Ganitham - involving the community, teachers and other stakeholders. The NCEE believes that the intent and experiences of these initiatives must be documented and shared with other state governments so that such programs are replicated across. The NCEE is planning to undertake a study to crystallize these efforts and their outcomes through interactions with various stakeholders involved in the conceptualization and deployment of these programs.
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Kerala's E-Language Lab: An innovation of the Kerala Education Department for English Language Learning
E-Language Lab (ELL), a pioneering initiative by Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) is a Free and Open Source educational software designed and developed for elementary education to support English language learning. The ELL will provide opportunities for students to enhance their listening, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary through story based activities.
NCEE members were involved in conducting a study for this program focused on collecting data on students’ proficiency in English; examining teachers’ readiness to use ELL; understanding needs, constraints and challenges faced by teachers and identifying areas that may require a review or redesign.
To know more about ELL, click here.
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Bihar Kalam Satyagrah gains momentum
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The Bihar Kalam Satyagrah is a movement that is seeking to bring together citizen awareness on the quality of education in the state. Bihar often features at the bottom of the list when it comes to quality of education despite being the state with the largest population of youth in the country. Envisaged as a series of meets and discussions across university, district, block and village levels, the Bihar Kalam Satyagrah seeks to use positive mobilization as a tool to empower both citizens and youth to make the state accountable for the quality of education it provides.
Consultations and meetings have been held in the month of September across Bhagalpur and Chapra. A charter of demands is being prepared to be submitted to the state government. The youth of Bihar are mobilizing to demand their right to quality education!
To work with Bihar Kalam Satyagrah or support them, you can reach out on Facebook or Twitter.
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National consultation on state of access to education for migrant children results in charter of demands
The National Consultation on State of Access to Education for Migrant Children organized by the NCEE in collaboration with Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) and Aide et Action brought together other organizations working with migrant children across India to share their learnings and collectively put together recommendations on immediate steps to be taken to ensure migrant children are not deprived of their right to quality education anymore.
The recommendations include the need for evolving an integrated child development policy especially for migrant children; need for states and Centre to gather and report on the state of education of migrant children; deeper participation from private sector players in creating access and evolving a nuanced curriculum.
The proceedings of the national consultation can be accessed here.
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NCEE collaborates with BGVS to study the impact of pandemic-induced lockdowns on government school students in Jharkhand
A study, spread over two phases, is being conducted to assess the efforts that the state government is taking to help students cope with learning loss owing to the almost two-year lockdown imposed on government schools in Jharkhand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCEE has worked with the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), an organization based in Jharkhand for this study. About 30 blocks from 14 districts across Jharkhand have been chosen for the study. A random sample of eight schools has been created with four primary (Class 1 to Class 5) and four upper-primary and primary (Class 1 to Class 8) classes. Majority of the schools chosen as part of the sample have 50% or more of enrolled students belonging to SC/ST communities. This was done keeping in mind that SC/ST students are in a more vulnerable position when it comes to academic loss since their families were affected far more during the lockdown. Phase 1 of the study is now complete and Phase 2 is underway.
If you would like to contribute to the study, write to us.
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NCEE writes to the Andhra Pradesh CM to discuss the 'BYJU takeover' of education in the state
In the previous edition of our newsletter, we had written out a detailed note on our stance when it comes to use of digital technologies for imparting education. We reiterate, yet again, that we are not against technology in education. But we are against “personalized devices and learning” provided by technocrats and edtech conglomerates being seen as the panacea to addressing learning needs and quality of education.
The Andhra Pradesh government has signed an MoU with BYJU’s to include its online classes as part of the school curriculum, costing the state government INR 500 crores. The funds will be used to procure and provide 4.7 lakh devices to government school students.
When the MoU was signed, we asked the government to make the MoU public and that they discuss the dangers of implementing edtech programs without detailed assessment of the costs/harms and benefits to students, teachers and the public school system with relevant stakeholders.
We have now written to the Chief Minister’s office as well requesting a thorough analysis of the pros and cons of this deal before execution.
Read the NCEE appeal to the AP government here.
To contribute to the mission, join the NCEE EdTech Watch Telegram Group, visit the NCEE website or write to us.
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NCEE meets Telangana Education Secretary on SCERT EdTech program
NCEE members met the Telangana Education Secretary to plan the roll-out of a proposed smart class education program in schools across the state. The discussion revolved around four major components: Hardware and ICT infrastructure, LMS, Content and Effective usage by teachers. Among the major recommendations are the use of open access resources, use of content that is contextual to Telangana and creation of teacher groups to support continuous professional development through 'Communities of Practise'.
To support the implementation of the program, write to us.
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Webinar organized by Global Campaign for Education and the Transnational Institute
NCEE member Gurumurthy Kasinathan spoke at The Great Takeover, a webinar organized by the Global Campaign for Education and the Transnational Institute. Participants at the webinar were speaking about the role of multistakeholderism in education. Gurumurthy spoke about the MoU signed between BYJUs and the Andhra Pradesh government to integrate the former’s content as part of school curriculum in the state and its implications.
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NCEE's article on impact of Covid-19 on childrens' learning levels published in Children First journal
An article by NCEE, Effects of COVID-19 on Learning and Development of Children: Insights from a Survey of Parents After Opening of Schools, was published in DCPCR’s journal, Children First.
NCEE contributed an article to the DCPCR journal, based on its study of poor households in Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to understand the lived realities for children who had to cope with the 18-month-long disruption caused by the pandemic. The study was conducted through a survey of parents. To our knowledge, this is the first survey of its kind that has been conducted after schools began reopening in India. Around 500 households having 900 children between the ages of 6 and 18 were covered between September 2021 and January 2022. The findings reveal deep fissures in the system through which thousands of children have been falling.
You can get a copy of the issue here.
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News about the education emergency
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Supported by Tata Trusts, the study looks at the impact of the pandemic at the family level, on the education of children and the role that key stakeholders played in addressing challenges faced.
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Small hands, big burdens: Child labour in supply chains
All that glitter we like seeing on our nails, accessories and even the electronic products we use may be courtesy of a child who was supposed to be in school, studying. Despite it being illegal and irrespective of the measures being taken to universalize primary education, child labor persists.
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Dropout rate up, number of primary and secondary schools down in Karnataka, says analysis report of UDISE+
Reading between the lines and amidst the numbers is critical. This analysis, for instance, of UDISE+ data by Child Rights and You (CRY) indicates contradictory facts. The dropout rate at the secondary level is the highest in Karnataka even as the total number of enrolments have gone up across the country.
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In Sundarban villages battered by cyclones, girls are dropping out of schools
Climate change is not just impacting weather and cropping patterns across the world but also the lives of children. In the Sunderbans, for instance, boys and girls are being married off as teenagers and sent out to other states in search of better livelihood opportunities.
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Image credit: Scroll.in
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Computer graveyards and museums
Is equipping schools with computers and the ‘latest’ technology enough? Don’t we need to create opportunities for teachers to get comfortable with using them to make the teaching-learning process more interactive? Or are we content with making our schools technology graveyards and museums?
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NCEE is now on Twitter and Facebook. Follow our handles for regular updates.
Media articles are updated regularly and available on the Education Emergency portal
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All content (except where explicitly stated) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License for widescale, free reproduction and translation.
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