Dr Mukul Chandra Bora
(The writer is Director, Dibrugarh University Institute of Engineering & Technology. He can be reached at drmukulcbora@gmail.com)
According to the latest situation report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) of 23rd May 2020, the total number of COVID-19 patients has been increased to 51, 03, 006 and the number of death to 3,33,401 around the world. The analysis of situation reports of WHO of the last one month and report from researchers at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota, US shows that there are three possible scenarios of how the COVID-19 will progress in the coming months. The model used by CIDRAP is the 1918 Spanish flu Pandemic and the experts opined that the COVID-19 outbreak will last between 18 - 24 months and the pandemic is not likely to be halted until 60 - 70% of the population get immune. The worst of the three scenarios as outlined in the report states a second larger wave of coronavirus infections may likely occur in September – December 2020 and the pandemic may last until 2022. As per Michael Osterholm, director of CIDRAP, University of Minnesota, US, the Pandemic is not going to stop until it infects 60 to 70% of people and people got self-immunised to kill the virus and hence its infection to other people.
COVID-19 has suddenly changed the teaching and learning activities of students throughout the world due to the closure of Schools, Colleges and Universities and it is also a lesson for all of us. The developed countries with fewer students as well as the population in which the internet is available to all can make use of digital platforms very effectively but whereas a country like us where the access to the internet and mobile devices are not there for all the learners make the life of students miserable. So it is true that although Indian education has to accept this online teaching or digital pedagogy without any IT infrastructure available for all the students of the country. Although the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools was launched in December 2004 and revised in 2010 to provide opportunities to secondary stage students to mainly build their capacity on ICT skills and make them learn through computer-aided learning process the actual infrastructure required was not built by the government due to which it lies as a policy not to implement in the country. It is worth mentioning that the use of ICT in education only remained as a policy till 2015 and the actual revolution begins in the year 2015 and was accepted as a mode of teaching and learning. It is quite interesting to know that as per the Telecom Statistics Report (2018) published by the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India there was a 6 crore internet which is about 5% of the total population and increased to 20% in the year 2014. This figure has further increased to 57 crores in the year 2019 and is about 42% of the total population of the country and is approximately catering to almost all the families of the country. So it is unwise to say about access to the internet is not there for all families and might be a wrong notion to discourage the students towards digital and online learning. Online and digital learning is a very powerful system of learning as it provides the best to best education anywhere else in the world due to which the students will be able to go for the learning of their choice. It is true that the online platform of learning is a challenge to our teaching community as the students will have their own choice in selecting the teachers for the subjects amongst the best teachers available in the world and it makes us for regular up-gradation of knowledge and skill. It is true that internet connectivity is not there in each and every person in the country but it is also not true that there is a huge shortage of internet connectivity. The MHRD is doing hard to make it possible as soon as possible and it will erase the misery of the students.
It is worth mentioning that a large number of Indian students are going abroad for higher studies every year and the numbers are increasing from year to year. Similarly, a large number of students are going outside the state of Assam for secondary and higher education and this number is also very high. As per data of the Ministry of External Affairs, more than 7.50 lakh Indian students are studying abroad and studying in more than 90 countries throughout the world. The total number of Indian students going abroad is increased from 66,713 in 2000 to 301406 in 2016, based on the analysis of data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics. This translates into 234693 more students overseas in 2016 as compared to that in 2000 at a robust average annual growth rate of 22% in a span of 16 years.
According to a recent report published by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), India is an important source of global higher education and as per UNESCO, more than 142,000 Indian students are studying alone in the US and almost 52,000 are studying in Australia. This figure is more than 32,000 for Canada, and over 16,000 for the UK and it is clear that Indian students alone is a huge figure and will highly impact the higher education institutions across the globe. It is further reported that 57% of the Indian students may not be opted for higher studies abroad due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis which in turn put a huge burden on the higher education system of the country. On the other hand, 48% of students for the non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students already show their unwillingness to study outside the country due to the ongoing pandemic and it will be also a huge burden on the existing higher education institutes of the country.
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, has put big challenges not only in terms of Economy but also radically transformed all the sectors across the globe without any exception to higher education. It has given a new system from the closing of campuses to investing in online learning and supporting isolating students and staff, universities have to respond quickly to adopt this new normal way of teaching and learning in the Institute of higher learning. If you look at the next academic year, many institutions are expressed their concern about their international student and at the same time, our nation has to prepare to take up these new challenges for accommodating our students as well as ICT enabled infrastructure for teaching and learning. In a recently concluded conclave of global higher education professionals, the following key challenges may be faced by the Institutions of higher learning throughout the world which is quoted as below:
"Keeping our current students, faculty, and staff safe and healthy while also trying to keep normal operations running. We are also very concerned about enrollment for summer and fall." "The impact on student numbers has been significant, which means that there's pressure to reallocate funding to address shortages that have arisen. There are also communication and distance study options issues that are creating ongoing problems as we iron out the details of who needs what information or which resources."
"Our biggest challenges are keeping students and staff safe and well; avoiding panic; maintaining educational progress with innovative educational solutions, like going online; the financial hit of fewer students and expenditures on coronavirus-related necessities; and keeping our international students coming."
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought both opportunities and challenges for the higher education systems in our country and this is high time to make our Institutes capable of imparting higher education as per Global standards. All the educational institutions in our country should make the best use of this crisis as an opportunity and should establish it as a destination of higher learning. The Government of India has taken a lot of initiatives in terms of quality improvement in education including innovation, still, it should be taken as a movement by the entire education communities to make it a success. This is high time to upgrade our educational infrastructures to compete with the global standards and I am sure that with the help and support of all the stakeholders we will be able to achieve this milestone. The educational policymakers should formulate the policy at the state and national level to accommodate those students which were earlier going abroad for higher studies. It is true that no infrastructure can be built in a day and hence this should be thought in terms of other options as per the available resources.
So, at last, it may be said that the following measures may be adopted to overcome this crisis of accommodating those students in our state as well as in the country.
1. All the Institutes must run 2 shifts a day
2. ICT (Online courses as per UGC/AICTE) should be used for a minimum of 20% of the course curriculum and must be included in the process of credit transfer to overcome the teacher's shortage.
3. Use of Virtual Laboratory/Instrumentation should be adopted as far as possible.
4. Sharing of Human and Laboratory resources through the process of Virtual Reality
5. Use of Audio-Visual aid in teaching to accommodate a large number of students in Auditorium to make it classroom.
6. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be one of the options for Teaching and Learning.
7. There should be some online broadcasting system with different channels for each catering to all the streams of Science, Humanities, Engineering etc.
8. Each and every district should have one studio for the recording of Videos and Audio for all levels of Education e.g., School, College as per streams to avoid rushes.
9. One Educational Electronic Gadgets for all the Students of Higher Learning with all study materials like Notes and Videos.
10. So the last and most important is about our change in the psychology of all the stakeholders of the entire higher education system.
So this is just an introduction to the opportunities and challenges for higher education in India but a lot more options may be available to us to make our country an educational hub and should not miss this at this crucial moment of time. This is high time to use COVID-19 as an opportunity in the higher education sector to make our country rich in terms of innovative education which will lead to the country's growth.