‘Strengthening the Online Education Ecosystem in India’

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the formal schooling system in India, as it has across the globe, causing massive pressure on the online education sector.

It is critical to analyze the ‘state’ of ‘digitalized education’ in India.

Background

• The COVID-19 pandemic has given online education in India an unexpected push, as it has allowed the continuation of formal education as schools closed to mitigate the spread of the virus.
• As India went into lockdown at the end of March 2020, most schools were wrapping up the 2019-20 academic year. 
• Though the concept of online classes is anything but new, the sudden shutdown of the world owing to the pandemic, put the onus of education on the shoulders on virtual classes.
• Schools, colleges, and universities that had previously focused all their efforts on bettering the traditional form of education had to suddenly shift their efforts on reaching out to the students remotely.  
• The enforcement of such an approach in India’s already stratified education sector disrupted the general normative patterns of schooling.
• Although provisions were made in government schools to conduct classes online, existing faultlines—” between rural and urban, male and female, rich and poor”—were ignored.

Analysis

The sudden shift

• The Indian education system has been at the forefront, showing the way towards a holistic approach to learning.
• Historically, the gurukuls established a system for ensuring the all-round development of the learners which has been carried forward in our current way of the teaching-learning process.
• A broad look at the present-day pedagogy, clearly depicts that the curriculum is designed in a way to ensure the overall development of students with a sincere focus on extra-curricular and co-curricular activities.
• However, with the rapid strides in the field of science and technology as well as socio-economic and cultural changes, there is a paradigm shift in the teacher-pupil relationship.
• The changes have also significantly influenced the teaching-learning process, making it imperative for policymakers, academicians, and educators to think out of the box.  

What is the scope of online education in India?

• India holds an important place in the global education industry. India has one of the largest networks of higher education institutions in the world.
• However, there is still a lot of potential for further development in the education system.
• India has the world’s largest population of about 500 million in the age bracket of 5–24 years, which provides a great opportunity for the education sector.
• The education sector in India was estimated at US$ 91.7 billion in FY18.
• The number of colleges and universities in India reached 39,931 and 993, respectively, in FY19. India had 37.4 million students enrolled in higher education in FY19. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education reached 26.3 per cent in FY19.
• The country has become the second-largest market for E-learning after the US. The sector is expected to reach US$ 1.96 billion by 2021 with around 9.5 million users.

What about market share?

• At the same time, there has been a drastic reduction in the market share of the government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
• Can private firms fulfill the BSNL’s commitment to providing telecommunications services in the country’s hinterlands?
• The ability and willingness to do this will have a direct impact on realizing the goal of online education for all.

What are the major drivers of Online Education?

• Internet Penetration: India has an internet penetration of 50 percent6. It is predicted that by 2021, there will be nearly 735 million internet users in India7, which will lead to an increase in traffic for online education providers.
• Government Initiatives: Recent government initiatives are expected to strengthen the infrastructure needed by students to pursue education online. Information on some of these initiatives, including the YUKTI portal, SWAYAM Prabha, eBasta, and e-VIDYA, can be found in the related section below.
• Affordability: Online courses taken at UG or PG level are much more affordable than traditional programs: students save on tuition, accommodation cost, and travel expenses as they have the luxury to complete the course from home and in many cases at their pace. Many credential courses are free of cost and providers like Udemy have their prices as low as $11.99 USD. 
• Demographic: Nearly 46 percent of India’s population falls within the ages of 15-48. This younger demographic is a perfect target market for online education as online formats are generally more acceptable to this age range than older age groups and the lower cost is appealing to a price-sensitive market.

How is India’s ‘internet’ landscape?

• Over the last decade, India’s internet user base has grown exponentially to become the world’s second-largest due to
  • the availability of affordable mobile phones
  • the expansion of 3G and 4G coverage
  • people’s reliance on digital transactions
• India’s digital telecommunications landscape is dominated by private players, with the arrival of Reliance Jio in 2016 resulting in the scaling up of digitalization measures across the economy.

Digital-friendly government policies

The government has launched several programs under the initiatives such as ‘Digital India’ and ‘Skill India’ to spread digital literacy, create a knowledge-based society in India, and implement three principles ‘access, equity and quality’ of the Education Policy.

• e-Basta: Schools books in digital form.
• e-Education: All schools connected with broadband and free wifi in all schools and develop MOOCs – develop pilot Massive Online Open Courses.
• NMEICT: The Government of India started a National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) to effectively leverage the potential of ICT in the teaching and learning process.
  • The major goal of the mission is to ensure good quality education for learners anytime, anywhere mode.
• SWAYAM: In order to give impetus to the online education in the country, the Government of India has initiated a program called SWAYAM which has been designed to achieve the three cardinal principles of the Education Policy, viz., access, equity and quality.  
• NPTEL: The National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) powered by Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was started with an aim of creating video and web-based courses in various disciplines of science, engineering, management, humanities and social sciences.
  • In its current phase, the NPTEL has started offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with the opportunity to earn certificates by appearing in a proctored examination at the end of the course.
  • The online examination is conducted all across the country in designated testing centres, twice a semester.
• NOFN: In order to establish digital infrastructure, the government has also launched National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) which aims to expand broadband connectivity and faster network.

The Questions of ‘equity’ and ‘equality’

• The question of equity and equality, the cornerstone of the Constitution of India is missing from all the narratives of online education. Envisioned in the Constitution of India is the aim of providing equality of educational opportunities to all citizens irrespective of caste, class, gender and religion.
  • Article 21A (added by the 86th Amendment to the Constitution, 2002) imposes a mandate on the state to provide free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 and 14. 
  • Article 29 (1) provides for equal access to educational institutions maintained by the State without discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
  • The Right to Education Act 2009, mandates to provide equitable quality education to all children from six to 14 years of age.
• However, all the efforts of the government to facilitate education processes during the pandemic draws attention to the fact that the milieu of public/government education system, and low fee private school or affordable private schools, are out of the purview of government initiatives of online education.
• Even people from disadvantaged communities- be it, teachers, students or parents-have been left to fend for themselves while Government is making provisions for online learning or planning to resume offline on-campus school post-COVID.
• Alarming is the fact that the government is oblivious to the stark realities of social inequalities which are proving to be the greatest barrier to access online education.

What are the challenges?

Online education is has a bright future in India, but the journey is fraught with several challenges. Major challenges faced by the sector are as given below:

• Insufficient digital infrastructure: While the government has been making efforts to create and improve a digital infrastructure across the country, there hasn’t been any noteworthy progress.
  • According to World Economic Forum, only 15 out of 100 households have access to the internet, and mobile broadband remains for a privileged few, with only 5.5 subscriptions for every 100 people.
  • Further, currently broadband reaches just about 600 corridors, largely in and around the top 50-100 Indian cities, leaving rural areas with poor connectivity.
• Poor learning engagement: In traditional classrooms, student-teacher and peer-to-peer engagement is very high. Learners can approach the instructors and fellow students for feedback or discussions, and get their concerns addressed on-the-spot. E-learning is yet not developed to a level to stimulate open-ended or crowd learning unless the courses are imparted live with the help of an online instructor.
• Lack of standardization, credibility, and quality: The lack of standardization of online programs and their formal acceptability still remain a concern. The e-learning players offer multiple courses on the same subjects with different levels of certifications, methodology and assessment parameters. Online courses are designed and imparted by different instructors, who may be given autonomy to design the curriculum. So, the quality of courses may differ across different e-learning platforms. Most online courses do not get academic credits, credibility and recognition in the traditional educational eco-system.
• Language of the courses: India is a multi-linguistic country, and a majority of the population comes from non-urban areas. The online courses, mostly focus on English content. Hence, non-English speaking students struggle with the availability of vernacular content.
• Low completion rates: Online courses are self-paced learning. There is minimum or negligible motivation due to lack of face-to-face interaction. Hence, the completion rate of online courses is very low.

The required strategy

A multi-pronged strategy is necessary to manage the crisis and build a resilient Indian education system in the long term.

• Continuity of learning: Immediate measures are essential to ensure continuity of learning in government schools and universities.
  • Open-source digital learning solutions and Learning Management Software should be adopted so teachers can conduct teaching online.
  • The DIKSHA platform, with reach across all states in India, can be further strengthened to ensure accessibility of learning to the students.
• Inclusive learning solutions: Inclusive learning solutions, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalized, need to be developed. Innovative, mobile-based learning models for effective delivery of education need to be adopted.
• Addressing the demand-supply trend: Strategies are required to prepare the higher education sector for the evolving demand–supply trends across the globe—particularly those related to the global mobility of students and faculty and improving the quality of and demand for higher studies in India.
• Unified learning system: It is also important to reconsider the current delivery and pedagogical methods in school and higher education by seamlessly integrating classroom learning with e-learning modes to build a unified learning system.
• Integration of traditional knowledge: Indian traditional knowledge is well known across the globe for its scientific innovations, values, and benefits to develop sustainable technologies and medicines. The courses on Indian traditional knowledge systems in the fields of yoga, Indian medicines, architecture, hydraulics, ethnobotany, metallurgy and agriculture should be integrated with a present-day mainstream university education to serve the larger cause of humanity.

Future Trends

E-learning sector in India will witness the following trends in the next few years:

• Hybrid model: There will be a convergence of online and offline education model. Online course providers will work actively on providing supplementary education, such as after-school coaching, e-tutorials, internships and live projects. They will also reach out to students at offline touch points like group discussions and labs. There will be virtual classrooms where traditional offline pedagogy will be aided by digital courses on practical knowledge and soft skills.
• Addition of new and offbeat subjects: Apart from the popular subjects like data science, cloud computing and digital marketing, the e-learning curriculum will look to offer courses in unexpected subjects such as culinary management, forensic science, cyber law, etc.
• Gamification: In order to make learning more interesting, competitive and rewarding for academic students and professionals, the digital courses will incorporate features such as badges, discounts and leader boards.
• Peer-to-peer learning and profile mapping: E-learning providers will develop peer-to-peer model to establish collaborative learning between students through notes and idea sharing on a common platform. Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, data analytics, facial recognition, etc., will be used to offer profile-based customized courses.
• Investor interest will grow: Over the last three years, there have been several high ticket deals in the Indian e-learning sector. The sector will continue to spark more interest among the investors and attract funding.

Wrapping Up

In the current scenario and prevailing circumstances, the role of e-learning has been realized across all levels of decision making.  Though India is still in a kind of a beta stage when it comes to online education, the system is most likely here to stay for a long time. With continuous innovation and technological support, the sector could soon look at adapting to a more comprehensive style of virtual classes, where students and teachers are both able to deliver more effectively.   The longer the coronavirus pandemic lasts, the bigger its effect will be and there is a strong possibility that online learning may become mainstream rather than a temporary measure.