It is time to move India’s higher education online | Opinion

Education plays a dominant role in addressing the challenges a country faces and coming up with possible solutions. This has the potential to make a country self-reliant and resilient. While we understand the need for a greater share of public funding for supporting education, a country such as India needs to evolve innovative methods to spread mass education within the available resources. Undoubtedly, there is an increasing social demand for accessible, affordable and good quality higher education as the increasing gross enrolment ratio (GER) indicates.

Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to reflect upon what should be the structures of higher educational institutes (HEIs), and in what forms we can ensure accessible education during and after the pandemic. Those who question the need for adopting online education even post the pandemic should look no further than the non-equity in most of HEIs’ admission policies, which are based on elimination rather than selection.

I see two arguments advanced against adopting online education. One, the issue of the digital divide. This criticism is not as reliable as it may first appear. While it is true that Internet access has to improve, statistics tell a different story. In 2020, the Internet penetration rate in India is 50%, and is rapidly increasing.

The good news is that the National Broadband Mission (NBM) is progressing fast enough to provide access to every village by 2022. NBM is expected to enable all rural and remote areas to have equitable and universal access to broadband services. In the near future, three million km of optical fibre cable will be laid and the towers are expected to increase from the existing 565,000 to one million. The speeds are expected to reach 50 mbps. Therefore, broadband Internet connectivity will not be a hindrance in providing online education in the future. In India, mobile data charges too are at least 30 times lower than the global average, making it cheaper to access digital content.

The second argument is the belief that we cannot recreate the physical classroom experience. Therefore, some critics say that the online mode of education will dilute the quality of education. Unfortunately, the dilution is already embedded in the physical mode of teaching, with most students playing only a passive role in the classroom. This is one of the reasons why the teaching-learning outcomes in many HEIs are not up to the mark. The lack of student engagement and positive interactions through discussions in the classroom has led to the present situation, leading to increased absenteeism and poor performance by the students. We need to set this right before we criticise online education. Further, we should not import the bad practices of the physical classroom to the online classroom. And this is the right time to do it correctly by redressing the shortcomings of the past.

When we shift to online education, more attention needs to be paid on how we impart it. Online education can happen in two parts. First, at their own leisure and pace, students will go through the digital resources made available to them. Second, students can interact with the teachers in real-time live online classes, discussing what they have already studied from guided online resources.

It is in the second part that, teachers can play an important role. The teaching can be made enquiry or discovery-based, through inclusive and active involvement of students. Moving to online classrooms gives us the opportunity to create “non-didactic flipped classrooms” as students are expected to attend these after having gone through the pre-lecture materials. This is what we also call blended learning. We could have done this in the physical classrooms too but we missed the bus riding on outdated practices. But nothing stops us from implementing a flipped classroom in online mode.

As many people assume, HEIs do not necessarily need to possess state-of-the-art technology and lecture recording systems to be able to offer online courses. There are many educational technology companies which can provide the technologies for recording, editing, hosting online courses and arranging proctored evaluations while HEIs can work on pedagogy, curriculum, teacher training and improvement of the quality of education. This is also an opportunity for public-private partnership (PPP) in higher education.

HEIs must embark on offering skill-oriented online degrees, diplomas and certificate programmes. This is where prospective industries can join hands with the HEIs in designing the curriculum and offering job guarantees to the enrolled students provided their performance record crosses the desirable threshold. Being funded by non-governmental resources through PPP is the best guarantee for academic and financial independence of HEIs.

The Institutes of Eminence and other HEIs with top National Institutional Ranking Framework scores should mandatorily offer skill- oriented online programmes at a moderate tuition fee. This way, online education has the potential to enhance the social mobility of those who could not easily access quality education from premier HEIs. Covid-19 has provided us the opportunity to be flexible in higher education replacing the ineffective educational practices that we have clung on to for too long.

Maintaining quality in online programmes is important, but this should be done through appropriate mechanisms within HEIs rather than one-fits-all regulations. The greater the initiatives in online education from reputed HEIs, the more likely these will be accepted by students, teachers, parents and employers. In India, the time has never been better for HEIs to re-invent themselves.

M Jagadesh Kumar is vice-chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The views expressed are personal

NITs relax admission norms: 'Only pass marks needed in class 12 examinations'

In the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) today relaxed admission norms for admissions into National Institute of Technology (NITs) and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). NITs will admit undergraduate students based on their performance in Joint Entrance Exam-Mains (JEE-Mains) and will discount the class 12 board examination marks in selection process, the human resource development ministry said today. "JEE Main 2020 qualified candidates will now only need to obtain a passing certificate in class XII examination irrespective of the marks obtained," Union human resource and development minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank tweeted today.

Earlier, along with the performance in JEE-Mains, NITs used to demand either 75% mark in the board examinations or a place in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards.

Earlier, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) said that they will admit the students based on their performance in JEE-Advanced. The marks in class 12 board examinations will not be necessary for admission to IITs this year.

“For admissions to #IITs, apart from qualifying the #JEE (Advanced), the eligibility was to secure either minimum score of 75% marks in class XII Board exams or rank among the top 20 percentile in their qualifying examinations. Due to the partial cancellation of class XII exams by several Boards, Joint Admission Board (JAB) has decided to relax the eligibility criterion for #JEE (Advanced) 2020 qualified candidates this time," Pokhriyal said.

The board examinations were disrupted due coronavirus pandemic. On July 3, the union human resource development ministry had postponed the JEE examinations and the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET) to September, citing a sudden surge in COVID-19 cases. The JEE (Main) examination will now held between September 1 to 6 and JEE (Advanced) examination will be held on September 27.

"Keeping in mind the safety of students and to ensure quality education, we have decided to postpone JEE and NEET examinations," Pokhriyal earlier said.

Delayed JEE Main, NEET to take cut-off higher, students’ college choices likely to change

The announcement on the final dates of JEE Main and NEET, besides board exam results, is only half the battle won by students. Fears of further delay, retaining focus during this long time for preparation, and deciding on college admissions digitally is taking a toll on students. The challenges are tougher for those who are facing a financial crunch at home, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As students become more anxious by the day, teachers have donned the hat of counsellors. Brainly, a doubt clearing platform has seen an increase in the number of questions by as many as 50 per cent as compared to that of the last year.

Vanu Sud Dhindsa from Vedantu believes that queries from students are more about emotional well-being than academics. “Since the extended delay, students are falling into an unending loop of studying, then wondering about the future and then returning to studies. With exam centres being shifted and a majority of students at home now, their concern is more about the delay affecting an entire year than health,” she told indianexpress.com.

“How much more will I have to wait, will there be a further delay?” is among the most frequently asked questions by students, as per Sud. She added that college admissions being held virtually has made the difficult choice of selecting a college even tougher for students.

“The situation is worse for those who have faced an economic crisis amid all of this. These students are rethinking their choices, opting for a college near their homes, looking at courses which are less expensive. These are teenagers and most of them have been introduced to a financial crunch for the first time and end up feeling responsible for their choices. Many are not even discussing the issue with their parents,” informed Sud.

Students who have gone back home or those in a geographically disadvantaged situation are facing the brunt as connectivity remains a key challenge.

Competition to go higher

Saurabh Kumar, Director Academics, Vidyamandir Classes believes the delay will create a more competitive environment for students. “Since the marking in the competitive exams is relative, the cut-offs are expected to go higher. With limitations on foreign admissions too, the number of applications for colleges will go higher. We can see a rise in not just core courses and colleges but also for allied fields this year.” He also informed that students who appeared for the January attempt at JEE Main and secured 92+ scores are preparing for JEE Advanced rather than JEE Main.

He added, “Students are also worried about getting lesser time for their college education. For now, most are demanding more mock test papers and we are preparing around 30 such on a daily basis.”

Special arrangements for EWS students

According to RL Trikha from FIITJEE,  the questions are not just limited to JEE and NEET, parents are wondering about the safety of sending their child to school or college this year. Those aspiring to go abroad are already rethinking their higher education plans.

He too believes that with admissions, exams and preparations all going digital, it is the lesser privileged sections who are losing out on opportunities. FIITJEE thus is also providing distance mode learning to students. Under its Fortunate 40 programme, the coaching institute is offering free for hostel facilities for 40 students in each of its 82 centres. The institute is offering study material to students at home along with downloadable versions of online classes which can be accessed and downloaded from any device including a less sophisticated phone.

Trikha suggests, “If students follow the mantra of ‘learn, practice, test, and feedback’ (rectify mistakes), you will surely succeed.” He believes students can raise their rank by at least 10 to 100 positions depending on their practice.

STEM topics trickiest

Many students feel shy asking questions in front of the entire batch and reaching out to a teacher on an individual basis has become tougher than usual due to the lockdown, believes Rajesh Bysani, chief product officer at Brainly. This has given rise to more questions being asked among peer groups and communities.

Academically, STEM subjects are the most commonly asked topics in academics. Among STEM courses, students are finding mathematics to be among the toughest; questions about the application of a concept are among the most asked questions on the platform. Geographically, most questions are being asked from Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Patna. Among languages, English is the most preferred mode followed by Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam and Gujarati, as informed by the doubt clearing platform.