Art Of Teaching

Educational Apps and its effect on staff and students due to high handed attitude of private managements.

COVID-19 has struck low-cost private schools exceptionally hard. The fiscal jolt of the pandemic has placed the staff under significant financial stress; staff reported losing their jobs, having their salaries cut, or not being paid at all.

Upon this the private Managements are imposing online apps on teachers and students by purchasing them at huge costs instead of collecting lower fees or paying staff salary.

Data suggest that schoolteachers believe they are digitally trained, or Management believes they can train the teachers by purchasing apps and providing training for a day or too. However, it needs to be noted that being able to use expertise is not the same as having the required academic knowledge to teach online. Same goes for students.

The Gap in Usage and Techniques.

Many teachers and students who are using online programs are finding it hard to adapt to new ways of teaching and learning. Taking online classes demands prior preparations, which not only includes lesson plans but also PowerPoint presentations, assessment sheets, and adapted student exercises to create interactive classes (The Hindu, 2020).

Many teachers have not only informed lack or readiness for performing online classes but also put-up concerns about connecting with underprivileged group of students as well as larger groups of students. Think of students and teachers sitting continuously in front of mobiles or screens for 4 to 5 hours every day.

Instead of understanding these actual problems the Managements only want to tighten their collars by suggesting that they have spent a sizable amount on purchase of new online apps for benefits of staff and students. Whose money are you spending? Who gave you the authority to do so in times of Covid when teachers are struggling with pay cuts and parents with financial problems? Did you bother to ask the staff whether they are mentally prepared to handle the new app provided with maybe a day or two training. Did you train the parents and students for the same? No. I think not. Most of the managements of private schools think it below their dignity to consult the principals and teaching staff or for that matter parents and students before any such type of huge purchases involving the students’ money.

As per data research if you ask a question ‘How often do you interact/communicate with students during a week?’ It is seen that a large number of teachers, nearly 75 percent who are interacting with their students on all working days are private school teachers, and only 25 percent who are engaging with students on all working days are government teachers. So please note, the teachers communicate with their students in some form, but not necessarily every day like private school teachers who have a mandate from the Management to do so.This results in frustration among the staff and hindrance in teaching learning process.

My question to one and all is if the Private school Managements with no academic knowledge are taking decisions detrimental to the physical and mental health of staff and students, why not remove the Puppet Head and carry out all academic decisions openly in your stead. If it is my way or the highway, why hold the Puppet Head responsible in case of any mishandling?

 The new undercurrents between teachers, parents, and management is online education. Teaching online requires a specific form of pedagogy that teachers have not been trained in. While the statistics show that teachers believe that they are theoretically proficient, they just transfer classroom materials onto PowerPoint demonstrations or give lectures through the online platforms, More than being learner-centric, most COVID-19 education has one-way teacher-centric provision. We can also respond to the differences between problems and concerns of government and private school teachers. Government schoolteachers cannot complain of increased working hours compared to private school teachers. This difference exists because private school teachers are taking online classes more regularly than government schoolteachers who are sending tasks through other means, possibly because of the access gap.

Teachers are venting their anxiety and feelings through social media and blog posts, saying that without eye contact and one-on-one interaction, teaching has become challenging even for the best of the teachers. According to some teachers, online classes are perfect to maintain teacher–student connect only if the class strength is less than 15. Has the Private school Management given this concept a thought instead of spending money on apps? They can reduce the teachers’ burden by appointing more teachers on temporary basis or by dropping some subjects which are highly impossible to teach virtually. Even Private managements due to their ‘I don’t care attitude’ have failed to stop teachers to perform COVID duties such as conducting area surveys. We have understood that many teachers have been infected, and a little of them succumbed to COVID-19.  With no post-retirement benefits or Death on duty benefits do the private management think of the families of these staff who have succumbed to Covid?

The role of technology in education during the pandemic lies with the government. The Ministry of Education has been promoting its various Information Communication Technology initiatives such as the National Repository of Open Educational Resources, e-Pathshala  for school books and resources, Diksha, and e-PG Pathshala which provide access to e-content in 80 undergraduate courses. In addition to this, SWAYAM online courses, and UGC MOOCs, are also being promoted through various government websites such as Ministry of Education, National Institute of Open Schooling, Central Board of Secondary Education, University Grants Commission etc., which can be accessed by teachers and students free of cost. Every lesson in the new textbooks have got a Q-R code which can be accessed by students and teachers.

Ed-Tech companies have seen this as a big market opportunity and the Management are lapping it up without any thought what so ever. Would it not be better to give the staff full salary, provide some discounts for parents and see to the safe commuting of staff members in this pandemic instead of buying educational apps at huge cost, which is not necessary at all if you have a proper planning in place. The online/virtual/e-learning education in India is already a thriving industry, and with this pandemic, it has witnessed an extraordinary growth in a short time span at the cost of teachers and students.

There is also a sudden rise in private schools approaching business-to-consumer companies to develop digital interventions and curriculum-driven solutions like online reference books and at-home digital learning tools.

If we go through the press interviews with Ed-Tech companies, it is revealed how they see COVID-19 as a massive market opportunity. From the viewpoint/voices of teachers, it appears that they are feeling disempowered. Datafication and analytics are going to replace the decision-making power of teachers in terms of needs of students. But the main question is whether this will work for the highly diverse society across India?

 Increasing Inequalities, among the Weaker Sections of Society

Newspaper articles and Private Managements are proliferating with praise for the Ed-Tech companies, discussing the ‘new normal’ and how students might not need to return to their classrooms. This is highly problematic, mostly for poorer students who do not have access to technology. It is well known that not everyone has access to stable electricity, Internet connections, or to a separate room to study, carving out inequalities concerning accessing education equally.

 We are aware that the teachers in India have started to use WhatsApp to set students’ work, as phones are more widespread than laptops or computers. What happens to those who do not have access to a smartphone, or whose parents cannot help them when they do not understand the instructions.  Therefore, we can say that if we move education online, it presents new dangers as a one-way flow of knowledge, with little opportunity to respond or ask questions.

Most of both government and private school teachers have responded that students from disadvantaged communities are being left out from online classes with a hope that the concepts will be repeated later.

It is seen that private school teachers are more concerned with recording videos and other related material to online platforms so that students can use it as and when possible. They are therefore devoting more time and money to make use of Internet facilities. The statistics show that the genuine reason of worry is the admittance disparity for all stakeholders, whether teachers or students.

Job and Salary Issues of Staff under Private Management.

 Due to commuting difficulties and because the Private School Managements are not on the same page as the Government with transport restrictions, staff has been unable to commute to their places of work and have to face salary cuts and job loss along with internal memos and show cause notices. Should not the Government have issued proper guidelines for the Private School Managements to follow all notifications as issued to Government schools and colleges so that there would be no ambiguity and different private managements would not set up different rules as per their whims and fancies at this time of pandemic.

This article has attempted to investigate the ground realities the private school teachers and staff are facing at the hands of private management with no help from the Government. Most of them are facing the injustices meted out quietly as they do not have any forum to express their sufferings like the government organizations and also due to the threat of job loss. Who will understand their plight?

The government therefore needs to focus on providing infrastructural support to all stakeholders so that they are able to use and reap the dividends of technology if online teaching is going to be the new normal, be it Government or private schools and instruct private managements about being humane to its staff and students during pandemic.

Ed-Tech companies that seem to offer a solution are only offering a solution to the more privileged sections of society and not to the middle class.

The key takeaway is that teachers as well as students need pedagogical training for online situations, but it is essential that their physical and mental health is taken care of and they face stress free situations. The private managements need to ensure that fact first.  Teachers should have independence and freedom in deciding when and where and how to integrate technology to support their teaching practices.

I conclude ……..

The Heads of schools along with teachers need to decide the way ahead instead of private managements enforcing their dictates on the staff without any academic knowledge or background.

Ensuring proper education is not related only to books but encompasses all realities of staff and students, that is why there is a pyramid formed where the stake holders range from staff to students, to Management with them being the tip of the iceberg, pun intended.