Need to reimagine schools: Nilekani
The rapid shift to teaching and learning activities online, prompted by the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is only a “short-term response” and it is time to fundamentally reimagine schools as a resilient system that can function under continuous turbulence, according to Infosys
Chairman
Nandan
Nilekani.
Classroom should not be the only location, teacher not the only facilitator, and textbooks not the only medium,
Nilekani said on
Saturday, while delivering the keynote address at a virtual conference on
‘Future of
Schools:
Overcoming
Covid-19 challenge and beyond’, organised by Ashoka University.
“The rapid shift to move everything online, zoom classes, teaching through smartphones, all of this is part of a short-term response, which was necessary but not sufficient. We need to fundamentally reimagine schools, build a resilient system strategically detailing how are we going to deal with the turbulence for next few years,” said Nilekani.
“SCHOOLING BEYOND SCHOOL, LEARNING BEYOND CLASSROOM, AND PLAYING BEYOND PLAYGROUND SHOULD BE OUR MOTIVE” Nandan Nilekani, Infosys chairman
Noting that the pandemic was a crisis that had affected everybody, he said it was an unprecedented disruption and “we have to now strive for education excellence in a seismic era".
Nilekani said our traditional reflexes to a disaster were now paralysed and the domino effect of the pandemic would be felt for years. "Unlike other disasters which have a certain time frame, like you can fix cyclone impact, fix tsunami impact...but here we do not know that how long will this go on and we must be prepared that we will have to coexist with this for many years. This is not a bad dream from which we will wake up in a few days, this is a new reality," he said.
Revisiting the basics, decoupling schooling from schools, ensuring trust of students and parents with alternative teaching methods, and ensuring all learners have access to learning were among the focus areas outlined by Nilekani for schools.
“How do we ensure that there is no physical interaction but still trust is maintained between teachers and students or parents? We need to develop the ability to deal with different children with different speeds, mentoring them while maintaining the quality of learning and teaching and how to ensure there is inclusivity.
"We need to be able to virtualise space so that schooling can be done from anywhere. Schooling beyond school, learning beyond classroom and playing beyond playground should be our motive when we look forward to synchronizing teaching learning experience ...it should no longer be about proximity," he said.
Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of a slew of measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak. A 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has announced easing of certain restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.