Will 2022 take us towards equity in education?

As the year closes, schools are yet to open fully in many parts of the country. Although online education of varying degrees was offered, the implications of children not going to school for such a long period of time on their physical, mental and social well-being is something that is immense, yet not completely obvious.

What is required now?

Looking ahead, one hopes that 2022 would be a year when the deficits in education that have emerged in these two years would be filled. In a country like India, where there was vast inequality in the access to quality education even before the pandemic, one can be sure that extraordinary efforts would be required to revive the education sector in an equitable manner.

So far, the response to the pandemic has been a focus on digital education and learning, whereas what is required is a much wider vision for education.

Access to digital resources among the rural and urban poor is limited. The SCHOOL survey conducted in August 2021 across 15 states by a group of independent researchers, led by Prof Jean DreÌze, found that only 24 percent (in urban areas) and 8 percent (in rural areas) of the sample children said that they were studying online regularly.

A similar proportion of parents felt that their children had adequate online access whereas three-quarters of the parents felt that the reading abilities of their children had declined during the pandemic and an overwhelming majority were of the opinion that schools should open.

The ASER survey, conducted in 25 states and three Union Territories, also found poor access to digital education. While over two-thirds of the enrolled children had a smartphone at home, only 27 percent of them had full access to it for their studies. In fact, 26 percent had no access at all.

As a result of the digital divide as well as the qualitative difference in learning online rather than attending physical schools, there have been huge learning losses.

For instance, a UNICEF study finds that 80 percent of children, aged 14-18 years, reported lower levels of learning than when physically at school. Given the financial distress that a number of families faced during this period, there have been many reported instances of child marriages and child labour among children who were attending school earlier. Children have been deprived of mid-day meals, and this has meant a huge shortfall in nutrition for many.

In the coming year, as schools open up, they have to be sensitive to everything children have gone through these past two years and innovate to ensure that they are supported not just in their learning but also overall well-being. As schools open up, it cannot be back to business as usual, rather this needs to be used as an opportunity to also rectify all that was wrong with the system earlier.

This would require putting in much greater investments in education. However, the budget for 2021-22 for the education ministry declined, compared to the previous year, and, further, as of October 2021, the Department of School Education has spent only 38 percent of its allocated budget for this year.

One of the major findings of the ASER survey is a shift in enrolment from private schools to public schools, which may be because of unaffordability of fees as well as shutdown of smaller private schools during the pandemic. With more children coming to government schools, additional investments will be required to improve the infrastructure in schools as well as to ensure that appropriate learning material is available, better meals are provided and vacancies in teachers’ positions are filled.

For children, especially from marginalised communities, schools can open up wide possibilities for learning and expanding freedom (to escape ill-health, malnutrition, ignorance, child marriage, child labour and so much more). They can get an opportunity to overcome generations of disadvantage and grow up into citizens who have been given a chance to realise their full potential. In the past, the highly unequal schooling system in India has had many lacunae towards achieving this.

One hopes that with the fault lines in our education system being exposed like never before during the pandemic, 2022 will be the turning point in the country, putting us on a path to universal and equitable schooling. A beginning can be made with the upcoming budget in February 2022, giving a clear roadmap towards achieving the long-standing goal of public spending of 6 percent of GDP (Centre and states combined) on education.

Dipa Sinha teaches Economics at School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.