Open the Flood-Gates of Learning in Schools

“The future of a country lies in its schools”. “Today’s children are tomorrow’s nation-builders”. Prime Minister Sri Manmohan Singh has rightly emphasized that the future of India will be prosperous only when the children of our country are provided with proper Education. So, the parliament, on April 1, 2010, affirmed Right to Education Bill. April 1, 2010 is an historic day for the children of India. Education has becomes the Fundamental Right for all the children aged 6-14 years age. Accordingly, no child will be denied admission, no child will be asked to take any admission tests, and even children with disabilities would be given admission.

Are the children of our country deriving any benefit out of this ACT? Is education really free and compulsory? Have the states implemented RTE in all the schools and even in the remotest villages? Have the private schools in all the states allotted seats to the poor children? The answer to all these questions is simply, “NO”.

RTE ACT has paved way for compulsory free Education to all the children across the country. But it is not reaching the children in every nook and corner of the country. The ACT has given facilities and provisions for educating children belonging to the weaker sections. But it is not reaching them in toto.It is really unfortunate that we know to make rules and laws but we fail to implement them effectively.

Let us see, how the school system works and what the conditions of teachers and students are. The present system of schooling is not flexible. It is a mixed bag of studies, tests, exams, activities-curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular. All the activities of the schools revolve around some kind of a fixed format or a schedule. Teachers are busy preparing their lessons, question papers, or assessing children’s answer books and evaluating their performance. Schools work as per the directions of the Education Board.

Children are busy learning by rote. They like their teachers and friends but not their studies, Examinations and marks. Their minds are full of Whys and Hows. They are not getting answers for all the queries that they ask either academic or non academic.

The present day schooling is very rigid and has fixed timings, time table, prescribed text books, uniform code of conduct for all the students, and fixed pattern of examinations etc. If the child misses a lesson due to illness the child has to depend on his classmates or his parents. The teacher has no time to revisit the lesson again for the sake of the child. On the whole the present day schooling is absolutely not learner-centric.

The present day schooling is biased, not objective. Since human elements are involved, schools cannot avoid conflicts in inter personnel relationships. Children feel that the teachers are partial and they are not getting what they deserve. Teachers feel that some of their students are boisterous, dominating and notorious. The inter personnel relationship is weakened and learning process is slowed down.

Schools and the Education Board should become more flexible. The Govt should direct all the schools to go online and periodically upload their lessons and assignments in their web portals. These lessons should be made freely accessible to all the students. Even children working as laborer or a peon or an office boy in some remote village should be able to access the lessons, learn easily and write their assignments and submit them online. Similarly, tests and examinations should be conducted. Evaluation can also be done online. Children may be asked to attend their face to face sessions as and when required. Now, education becomes learner-centric.

When schools go online, learning becomes OPEN and has several advantages for students.

• School timing is no more rigid. Children who are working for their livelihood can access their lessons during their free time from anywhere and anytime.
• Children are saved from the drudgery of carrying heavy load of books in their bags.
• Both studies and examinations are online and interactive. Hence there will be no failures in the examinations in future. The student will be repeatedly prompted to get the correct answers to questions. This will boost the confidence of students in examination system. They will no longer fear their examinations.
• Children need not have to travel to their schools, hence save their time.
• Children need not spend money for buying books or study materials.
• Children’s performance can be easily measured and monitored by the teachers effectively.
• Inter-personnel relationship between teachers and the students is strengthened.
• There is no failure in Examinations. Children will not be the victims of pass-fail syndrome. The psychological fears about exams and suicidal tendency will be eliminated.
• This system will be cost-effective provided children are given free laptop or PC and free internet.
• This type of web enabled technology will open the learning system to all children including earner learners.

• In this system of learning, they are competing with themselves. So, there are no hard feelings and comparisons with their class mates. Children will grow with stable, steady and sound mind.

· School dropouts will be drastically reduced.

· Teachers will not face behavior and discipline problem of children.

· Children will not face corporal punishments from their teachers.

· Web enabled learning makes the school system geographically INCLUSIVE reaching even the remotest village in the farthest part of India.

The advantages are too many when schools go online and open their learning programs to students. Millions of children who are not attending schools will be benefited by this step. This type of Blended Learning and Learner-centric Schools will produce citizens of high caliber. It should be noted that the present day children are living in the era of Technology and Internet. But Education is outdated and not in par with the progress in technology. Such technology and Internet enabled schools are the need for the day to impart Quality Education to our future leaders.