Learning: Beyond the Pandemic

As the world’s most costly, lethal, real-life ‘simulation’ is shutting down, we are left with many questions (and for some few answers as well). I am today writing on one aspect of this experiment which is around how learning in schools would happened and my perspective on it.

Companies to some extent were exposed to virtual forums of learning for almost a decade- online e-learning modules, webinars etc. The pandemic, in reality, just expedited the whole journey and enabled a greater adoption and acceptability for it. Though effectiveness of these is still a million-dollar question which the learning industry has yet to get an answer to.

The education in schools and colleges was still in the ‘upanisadic’ traditions of being close to the teacher and learning, though not always in the true spirit. This was the accepted method across the globe. However, the pandemic made it imperative to shift the teaching process online. Classes became various screens and teachers became, at times, just recorded voices.

So, what is the verdict on this virtual mode of education?

Education at the bottom of the pyramid.

I have been involved in the education sector, although in a limited way, through my volunteering work with Angel Express Foundation (www.angelexpress.org). They do some brilliant work based on a very simple and innovative idea of getting volunteers to spend just 2 hours a week in teaching children from poor backgrounds in their locality. I have been involved with them since 2017 and we used to conduct our classes in the nearby park in the sitting area. (They have some wonderful volunteering opportunities!)

As with all schools and colleges, during the pandemic this medium of teaching also had to be shifted online. So instead of the open-air classrooms it became black screens that we were teaching to. As with all aspects of life, the digital divide started to play out against the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ – in aspects of medical care, vaccination drives, employment opportunities etc.

Keeping the reality of accessibility aside, I am sharing my thoughts about the effectiveness of this virtual means itself on the students. Since I had some experience before the pandemic with them, to some extent I got inadvertently a control group to really look at what transpired (though not a statistical sample size!).

The Bell Curve in students

Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein (1) in their highly controversial book the Bell Curve brought out how there is a racial and economic variable or bias to the spread of IQ in the population. They were quite ruthless in their verdict on 'naturing' or 'nurturing' of IQ:

“The main lessons to be learned have already been learned: It is tough to alter the environment for the development of general intellectual ability by anything short of adoption at birth.”

I may be making a little controversial statement when I say that even I have observed a bell curve to exist among the students that I was teaching across the 4 batches! But a little different bell curve! I will therefore share about the impact of this virtual mode of teaching on the different students in this curve, including impact of maybe even the well- crafted and well-designed online education start-ups.

Skill-Will

I believe Hersey and Blanchard (2) modelled a good perspective through the Situational Leadership Model. This model basically tried to define the leadership style based on the followership stage or state of the mind. They categorised the team or the followers on their ‘ability’ and ‘willingness’ to deliver on the job. (Coincidentally they also had a bell curve in their diagrammatic representation; of course for other reasons!)

I am going to model my bell curve on the skill levels of the students and willingness of the students. Let me define these 2 dimensions as I see it.

1. Skill levels is not IQ as was defined in The Bell Curve, but is about the aptitude for the subject being taught. I used to teach Accountancy, but I could not see the children who were good in Maths, let’s say, being equally competent in Accountancy. Hence this is aptitude for the subject.
2. Willingness is an inclination to overall engage in the process of studying. The reason to be involved could be many - due to pressure from family or due to an inherent liking for it or due to the appreciation for the value of education for their futures.

Impact of Virtual-learning

Therefore when we put these parameters and look at the students in the four buckets we tend to see a bell curve in the same. I have named the groups based on what is the impact on them due to the virtual medium of education.?

(The percentage mentioned are my estimate of the group in the overall student strength)

1. The High Skill-High Will: These are the students who have a good aptitude and an inclination towards the subject. For them the online medium is a Boon as it enables them to access the best source or expert in any part of the world. They are the ones who were able to accelerate their learning curve to a different tangent.
2. The High Skill-Low Will: Since they have a good aptitude and ability around the subject, the online medium is just another way and they are the students who are on the Fringes and can move wither way. The online takes away the interest generating factors like peers and methods like discussions which mainly comes from the interactions with the teachers or the classmates.
3. The Low Skill- High Will: These students do struggle in understanding the subject and hence the lack of a personal conversation or attention or guidance can Exclude them completely from the learning journey. The online platforms make it impersonal and at times are also just recordings which do not provide for customisation in the levels of learning.
4. The Low-Skill-Low Will: They would have anyway struggled in the normal classrooms, but in this virtual space they will definitely be Lost. This group does not have any support structure that enables them to move to any of the other buckets.

As per my understanding, all the means of education and the efforts is not for the High Skill-High Will group, but for the students in the remaining categories. For especially the lower economic strata, the mid 70%-80% portion of the curve (who may feel excluded or are on the fringes), the online method of education is detrimental and could push them away from their possible growth trajectory. Like online opens great opportunities and can accelerate for the Boon group, it can decelerate the learning at a fast pace for these 2 groups. (I am assuming that the ‘Lost’ group will excel in any of the other walks of life and hence may not be relevant for our discussion). Therefore this forced ‘experiment’ of virtual mediums in my opinion has been costly.

Towards the future

There are 2 strong conclusions to be taken ahead with regard to policy work, social sector organisations, affirmative action etc.

In the digital world, there is a phenomenon of the winner takes it all as there is no space for the second. This phenomenon is becoming visible across different parts of the soceity. In a survey carried out by People’s Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE), the following came out as strong revelations of the economic divide(3):

…the annual income of the poorest 20 per cent of households in India declined by around 53 per cent in 2020-21 compared to levels observed in 2015-16.

In comparison, incomes of the top 20 per cent households grew by 39 per cent over the same period.

...A consequence of this divergence is that the richest 20 per cent of households (the top quintile) accounted for 56.3 per cent of total household income in 2021, up from 50.2 per cent in 1995. At the other end of the spectrum, the share of the bottom 20 per cent of households declined from 5.9 per cent to 3.3 per cent over the same period.

Primarily, we need to ensure that the divide of have’s and have-nots should not spill over to the education sector as well due to the dependence on online education. The impact on the majority of the students of this online medium as postulated above irrespective of the economic strata, can lead to long-term eroding of this group's participation in different walks of life. The education divide will only perpetuate the economic divide. Therefore, the first is to acknowledge that the last 2 years has not been all good or normal from an education perspective and not to move ahead as though it was just a diversion. Hence, there is an imperative to figure out how do we compensate the loss of these 2 years of complete education and bring in additional supports for the same.

Secondly, into the future, there is a lot of start-ups coming up in the space of education and all of them seem to be over-selling the benefits of the online medium. We need to take a much more cautious approach to it and not get sold on the narratives around it. It is therefore the responsibility of both the regulatory bodies and the parents to judiciously look at this upcoming business and its long-term impact on how our children will be educated.

With the pandemic and the consequent virtual means of education, the age-old adage of “you can take the horse to the water but you cannot make it drink” still holds, albeit a little different – “Now you can take (or sell) the water to the horse, but you still cannot make it drink!”

Our ancient scriptures had already defined the components of a good education system. Maybe sticking to these basics is the need of the hour and the future!

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From the teacher is learned a quarter,

a quarter from the student's own intelligence,

a quarter from fellow students,

and a quarter with the passage of time.(4)

As I finish this piece, I am left wondering if the insights above is applicable in the corporate sector also!

References:

1. Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life; 1994.
2. Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H., Management of Organizational Behavior – Utilizing Human Resources. New Jersey/Prentice Hall; 1969
3. Indian Express: Editorial, Covid-19 pandemic has widened economic inequities. Government interventions must be mindful of this challenge; January 25, 2022
4. Commentary by Haradatta on the āpastamba Dharmasūtra (1.7.29), 11th century.?

(The opinions expressed are of the author.)