Indian Education in time of COVID – A parent’s Rant!

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This post is the experience of a parent managing his day job and trying to see on how their third grade son adapts to the new learning in this COVID situation.

Today’s world of Indian Education

Education is the root of any successful individual and a very vital parameter for determining success in today’s world.

Having said that, how is the education system in the country shaping over the years.

How we as society at large are contributing to it is a question we need to find answers to.

With COVID, the basic concept of education have changed. Classroom and schools have moved to online format, be it Google classrooms or Microsoft Teams.

A child who used to get ready and meet his classmates in his school bus is now waking up at 06:30 or 07:00 am to meet them on a online exercise session.

A child used to sit with his teacher in a classroom is now infront of a computer or mobile screen and focusing on the class.

Kids at this young age are getting into a stage where they need to speak on a camera and not being conscious.

Adding to this, schools have decided on conducting online and virtual examinations to test the skills.

This leads to stress, and another area is mental health which are major areas that need to be focused in today’s world while all are fighting the pandemic.

How are schools equipping themselves to navigate this and boost it in their students?

What Ideas do they have for us parents to support our children?

Are the schools prepared to reform?

What are the schools doing in addition to having morning exercise and maybe one more session to address this? Is this on their focus at all?

At an age, when children are used to learning by doing, the schools are:

• Imposing a full year curriculum and
• Conducting tests to test the knowledge!

Is this justified?

Schools are more focused on completing the syllabus of the entire year (might not be true in all schools) than on considering reducing due to the circumstances we are in.

Should the schools not rework on the syllabus so children can manage their new normal?

Indian Education is predominantly focused on marks, ranks and percentages.

Are we as parents moving from this to a holistic approach helping the kids with life-skills and essential education than text book knowledge?

My Experiences as a parent

This is my personal experience that me and my wife have witnessed and experienced over the last seven months.

The school in which my son is studying is going in full swing covering chapters in each subject for a 3rd grade student since 1st June 2020 and conducting weekly online tests.

Classes duration use to range between 45 mins to 60 minutes to start with which is now increased to 4 hours now!

In addition to the online classes, the school recommends the students to fair all online material in their class notebooks.

Coping with the office deliverables of parents and managing the education needs of children seems to be new norm!

New Education Policy, 2020

A ray of hope! as GOI has taken a step for educational reforms.

Will these be implemented or another non-committal policy where parents opinions may or may not be incorporated?

Did you know that you could contribute by giving suggestions on the New Education Policy? Click Here to participate.

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Conclusion

Finally, We are trying the below to cope with this situation as the school has tough measures and have put our feedback on deaf ears.

• Waking up early in morning to manage the reading of subjects like Hindi
• Explaining the importance of writing long answers / notes as shared by his school
• Sitting with him to motivate to read atleast a few hours in a day and revise his lessons from the day
• Explain the concepts which are just shared at a high-level in the class
• Blocking time in our work calendar to keep aside some time to interact with our kid to understand the days happenings
• Making him sit alongside while we work so he feels included and that we are genuinely supporting him

I am planning to focus on teaching my son a few life skills that would help him become a better individual and a citizen than just a kid running after securing his marks.

This post is also a medium I have chosen to reach out to parents across to understand their way of supporting their children in the current Indian Education System.

Do share your ways of handling education of your children during these tough times in the comments box below.

Until my next post, this is Srikanth signing off!

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