DR. RAJESH VERMA

Is India Ready for Online Teaching?

6/23/2021

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The change was knocking on door since many years but we in education fraternity were behaving like an Owl-closing eyes to the reality of online education. When world came to a collective halt due to sweeping corona virus, education institutions were the first one to be closed and the way situations are unfolding, for next six months all education institution will probably stay under coronavirus forced closure.

India has the largest population in the world in the age bracket of 4-23 years and UNESCO estimates that about 32 crores students are affected in India, making it one of the worst hit sector by COVID-19 but it has not got the required attention from all quarters including media. The Indian government spends 4.6 percent of its GDP on education which is lower than in sub-Saharan countries like Kenya, Togo, and Zimbabwe. India's all-time blurred focus on education is again clearly visible from the following indicative facts, thereby indicating that despite lot of talk, education still has not got the importance it should have got from different stakeholders:

1. Government in the COVID-19 relief package has announced lot of long term visonary plans for online education but has ignored education sector in term of immediate financial support and has left them alone to champion their own survival.
2. Education regulators are reactive in their approach rather than being proactive. Rather than issuing clear guidelines are reacting to voices being raised by different staholders like parents, students and education institutions.
3. Parents in this ambiguous environment are not willing to pay the fees (even who can afford) and have shown negative aggression towards institutions (specifically private).
4. Students habitual of classroom teaching, in this uncertain situation demanding self-dicipline, rather than taking charge of their learning and thinking about the their career ahead are looking for excuses or benefits like promotion to next class without exams.

In April 2020, forced with harsh reality, faculty across the country abruptly transitioned their profession online and made an half-baked but fully motivated attempt using technology to reach out to the students wherever they were through never before used platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams etc. Online teaching became a popular buzzword and appreciation started pouring from all quarters. Education institutions and the Government started making tall claims that they has moved online wasting no time.

The sincere effort of teachers, ensured at least some engagement between faculty and students but can we really call it an online teaching? Is using a web conferencing app - online teaching? Is sitting in front of the laptop or in most cases in front of smart phone and talking to the cold muted microphones - online teaching? Is listing to words like - can you hear me? can you see me? can you see my screen? etc. etc. be termed as online education.

There are myriad challenges to overcome and there is hardly any time for preparation. Some of the challenges that we have closed eyes to are:

1. The educational inequalities between rich and poor learners due to unequal access to affordable internet services and gadgets is deepening. Govt through series of webinars is pushing the agenda of online but has been ignoring the issue of unequal access.
2. Learning new tools for online teaching is not a cakewalk but needs training of teachers on technology to use an optimum mix of synchronous & asynchronous teaching techniques. Institutions need to create opportunities for teachers upskilling and teachers rather than only relying on their institutions must take charge of upgrading their skills. Teachers unwilling to change & learn will be redundant and find their professional survival difficult.
3. Technology infrastructure, such as inconsistent WiFi speed, hight cost of data required to deliver and attend classes, gadget malfunctioning, limited gadgets available at home, which needs to be shared with everyone is also a creating problem. And that’s why online education without adequate infrastructure support cannot replace classroom teaching, at least in present India.
4. Extended screen time is a health hazard for teachers as well as students, given that there are no fixed working hours the exposure to screen is increasing day by day and online teaching has substantially contributed to it. Converting the face to face schedule into online teaching schedule is no solution but institution must think of ways to reducing screen time may be by reducing lecture duration to 40 minutes from an hour.
5. Teaching effectiveness in online teaching is dependent upon technology based innovative pedagogies and for that some basic electronic equipments like earphone, phone tripod, mic etc. are essential items but involves cost on part of faculty as well as students.
6. Teacher was always the king of his/her class but now that control is slowly dying a natural death. Students in an online class with camera off option may make teacher feel helpless by doing something else rather than listening to the teacher.

Education institutions need to quickly have a taskforce (team) in place and immediately put together the right strategic plan to ensure they are not out of the game. Everything done till now has been very encouraging. In coming time, we know online would be critical, but for education institutions to adapt and use it well, and that too so quickly, would be interesting to see. Online teaching is no substitute for regular face-to-face teaching, but institutions cannot just wait to the face-to-face classes to start, the period has to be judiciously utilized and students leaning cannot be made to suffer.

It is too early to tell what next six months will look like and what scale challenges are waiting for us, but one thing I am very sure about is that education institutions and faculty across the country will put their 100% efforts to support their students.

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National Education Policy: Building Brand Teacher

6/23/2021

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The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020) with an overarching vision and comprehensive framework introduces several structural reforms in Indian Education System to make India a global knowledge superpower, while remaining consistent with India's tradition and value system.

The renaming of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the Ministry of Education itself has brought the word ‘Education’ into clear focus. The policy not only aims to transform education but also provide an invisible opportunity to regain past glory to those who are facilitating education - ‘Teachers’.

Rishi Canak’s son Chanakya, a renowned Arthshastra teacher and strategist, had once rightly stated, “Teacher is the maker of nation” and the NEP-2020 on page 04, para 08 gives teacher the same status: “The teacher must be at the centre of the fundamental reforms in the education system. The new education policy must help re-establish teachers, at all levels, as the most respected and essential members of our society, because they truly shape our next generation of citizens. It must do everything to empower teachers and help them to do their job as effectively as possible. The new education policy must help recruit the very best and brightest to enter the teaching profession at all levels, by ensuring livelihood, respect, dignity, and autonomy, while also instilling in the system basic methods of quality control and accountability”.

eaching is a profession know for building all other professions but ask students about the career that they want to choose, and teaching profession would not even feature in their list. Similarly ask teachers why they have chosen this profession and the answer probably would be that they aspired to become something else, and teaching was a fallback career. What has led the once known as noble profession to slip to the bottom of the career ladder? Who is to be blamed? – Teachers themselves.

o denying that there are several other reasons and system too has contributed to the present loss of dignity of the teachers but then, if teachers can change the lives of millions every year, they have the potential to turnaround the system also for the good of society and the nation.

Unmindful use of words to describe the profession like teaching offers secure career, entails shorter working hours, regular annual vacations, good for females, half-hearted effort in re-skilling themselves etc. has done the damage over the years to this profession and have attracted people with mediocre capabilities looking for a relaxed life, rather than brilliant minds looking for challenges. Chapter 5 of the NEP-2020 details the visionary reforms in areas like: Recruitment & Deployment, Service Environment & Culture, Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Career Management and Progression (CMP), Professional Standards for Teachers, Special Educators and Approach to Teacher Education that will provide the much awaited structural & MORAL support to teachers enabling them to bring in the desired change in the society.

History is witness that Policy in itself cannot bring in the desired change until and unless, the implementation too is envisioned and planned with same intent and rigour. One of the main pillar of the society that has the responsibility to ensure that outcomes of NEP-2020 are realised are the teachers and if teachers who have a passion for the profession are determined to be at the forefront of this historic change, no one can stop them from regaining the past glory of being a respectful figure ‘Guru’.

e are in the time where we have an opportunity to change and re-build the brand ‘teacher’ and take definitive steps towards a rational society as visualised and described by Lee Iacocca in his one of the speeches - “In a completely rational society, teachers would be at the tip of the pyramid, not near the bottom. In that society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else”.

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प्राथमिकताएं

5/26/2021

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जहां एक ओर अस्पतालों में ऑक्सीजन की कमी, दवाइयों की कमी, बिस्तर की कमी और वेंटिलेटर की कमी का शोर मचा हुआ है वहीं दूसरी ओर अक्सर सन्नाटे में रहने वाले श्मशान घाटो तथा कब्रिस्तानों में भी कोहराम मचा हुआ है। मैं शायद कुछ हद तक लोगों की बेबसी को महसूस कर सकता हूं क्योंकि अपने परिवार के एक कोरोना रोगी के लिए मुझे भी रेमडेसिविर इंजेक्शन ढूंढने में काफी मशक्कत करनी पड़ी और काला बाजारी का सामना करना पड़ा।

हम आजादी के इतने वर्षों बाद भी स्वास्थ्य सुविधाओं का संतोषजनक ढांचा खड़ा नहीं कर पाए है और इसके लिए सरकारों को जिम्मेदार ठहराना उचित नहीं है क्योंकि लोकतंत्र में सरकार भी हम ही चुनते हैं। इसमें कोई शक नहीं कि कोरोना वायरस महामारी है और विश्वव्यापी है परंतु भारत में इस आपदा की भयावहता का दोष किसे दे? इस महामारी ने ना सिर्फ देश की स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं की सच्चाई को उजागर किया बल्कि दम तोड़ती मानवीय संवेदना हो को भी बेनकाब किया है। यह समय किसी को दोष देने का नहीं अपितु सबक लेने का है। हम सबको निम्न विषयों पर सोचना होगा और इन्हें अपनी प्राथमिकता बनाना होगा।

१. स्वास्थ्य और शिक्षा दो ऐसे क्षेत्र हैं जिससे मानव जीवन को बेहतर बनाया जा सकता है। यह दोनों क्षेत्र कभी भी हमारे देश में प्राथमिकता नहीं रहे परंतु आने वाले समयमें केंद्र और राज्य सरकारों को स्वास्थ्य और शिक्षा क्षेत्रमें भारी निवेश करना पड़ेगा। स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं पर खर्च का वैश्विक स्तर 6 फीसद माना गया है जबकि भारत अपनी कुल जीडीपी का 2 फीसद भी स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं पर खर्च नहीं करता।

२. मध्यमवर्ग और गरीब तबके का एक बड़ा हिस्साजो आज भी स्वास्थ्य बीमा के दायरे में नहीं है के लिए किफायती और उच्चगुणवत्ता वाली स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं का तंत्र खड़ा करना होगा या फिर मानव कल्याणकारी योजनाओं को अमल में लाना होगा जो प्राइवेट अस्पतालों के खर्च का वहन करने में लोगों की मदद कर सकें।

३. हम हमेशा ही जमाखोरों और कालाबाजारी करने वालों के आगे बेबस नजर आते हैं। चंद मुट्ठी भर लोगों के लालच को मानवीय मूल्यों पर हावी नहीं होने दिया जा सकता परंतु इसके लिए हर देशवासी को आगे आकर जमाखोरी और कालाबाजारी के विरुद्ध मुहिम छेड़नी होगी क्योंकि यह मुट्ठी भर लोग हम में से ही हैं और इन्हें हम ही खत्म कर सकते हैं।

४. सेहत के प्रति बढ़ती लापरवाही और बाजारीकरण के प्रभाव के बीच हम लोग अपनी संस्कृति की खूबियों को भूलते जा रहे हैं। बस हमें एक बार फिर अपनी जड़ों का महत्व समझना होगा और उस जीवनशैली को अपनाना होगा जो हमें हमारे ऋषि-मुनियों और पूर्वजों द्वारा दी गई है। इस जीवन शैली में ऐसी आपदाओं से निपटने के लिए पर्याप्तसं संसाधन उपलब्ध है। कुछ हद तक यह बात हमें करोना कॉल में गिलोय, आमला, तुलसी, नीम इत्यादि आयुर्वेदिक जड़ी बूटियों का महत्व समझ मैं आ गया है।

५. दोबारा देशभर में शटर गिराने (लॉकडाउन) की नौबत आयीं तो आर्थिक हालात इतने बद्तर हो जाएंगे कि संभाले नहीं संभलेंगे। हालांकि मानव जीवन सबसे ऊपर है परंतु हमें यह भी याद रखना होगा की लॉकडाउन की मार सबसे ज्यादा गरीब तबके पर ही होती है। इसलिए हर समय मास्क लगाना, 2 गज की दूरी बनाए रखना, हाथ बार-बार साबुन से धोने की आदत और कोविड वैक्सीन ही हमें इस महामारी से सुरक्षा प्रदान कर सकती है लॉकडाउन नहीं।

राष्ट्रवाद के नाम पर आरोप-प्रत्यारोप का समय नहीं है अपितु एकजुट होकर मानवता की रक्षा करने का वक्त है। डर महामारी का नहीं डर सही समय पर स्वास्थ्य सेवा ना मिलने का है याद रहे मृत्यु का इंतजार मृत्यु से भी भयावह होता है।

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Political Marketing -Sympathy Appeal

5/13/2018

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Sympathy Appeal - Seems to be a growing trend in #PoliticalMarketing.

# Gareeb Maa ka beta (Son of a Poor Mother)
# Dalit Parivaar Ka Beta (Son of an Oppressed Family)
# Gareeb Chai Wala (Poor Tea Seller)
# Pichde hue gaon kee Santaan (Child of a backward village)

Suddenly everyone in political circles and in general too have started looking for a past which does not appear to be normal and where they have undergone any kind of hardship.

Though claim might be to draw attention to an issue of significant importance, the result is often self promotion through gaining sympathy.

#TopicForResearch #PoliticalMarketing #SympathyAppeal

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Customer Greed

5/9/2017

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Do we buy things we want instead of things we need?

Are my purchase greed motivated or need motivated?

So is greed good or bad? "Greed is Good" in the movie Wall Street. Is it because the greedy want more and will end up paying more to the companies?

Should companies target Greedy Customers or Needy Customers?

Greed is an intense and selfish desire to have more............... A consumer ends up consuming or paying more because of this intense desire, but is this desire fueled by marketing?

Who is to be blamed: Customer or Corporate?

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