Although the Central and state governments continue to believe that it can remain education as usual, a new generation of edtech innovators are developing new digital technologies to enable a break away from traditional learning systems in the country’s pre-primary, primary-secondary and higher education institutions – Dilip Thakore A Silent revolution is underway in India’s classrooms. Although the Central and state governments pay lip service to the infusion of real learning and knowledge creation in school and higher education, reports of reputable, whistle-blowing organisations such as the Mumbai-based Pratham, Delhi-based Aspiring Minds and even the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry’s National Achievement Survey (see EW June 2016), testify that learning outcomes are plunging in K-12 and tertiary education. But the silver lining is that a substantial number of India’s private schools and colleges, which host over 50 percent of the 260 million children and youth in education institutions countrywide, are embracing new digital and Internet-enabled technologies which are reviving children’s joy of learning and making measurable impact on learning outcomes. While the country’s 1.34 million anganwadis — nutrition centres for newly-born children and lactating mothers established nationwide under the Central government’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme promoted in 1975 — are also mandated to provide early childhood education to 164 million children under five years age, they accommodate only 84 million, because the pathetic annual budget of the ICDS programme (Rs.14,863 crore in 2016-17) barely covers the low salaries paid to staff. On the other hand, a large and growing number of the country’s estimated 300,000 pre-primaries which host 10 million youngest children of middle and upper class households, are rapidly transforming them into digital natives through smartboards, videos, tablets and gamification of early childhood care and education. Likewise, the majority of the nations 320,000 private and aided primary-secondary schools are leveraging modern digital technologies and pedagogies, prompting an overdue break away from conventional rote learning and encouraging children to become self-motivated and joyfully develop conceptual learning, analytical and problem-solving skills. And in India’s colleges and universities suffering excessive government interference and chronic funds and faculty shortages, a small minority of serious students and faculty is increasingly using new ICT (information communication technologies) and Moocs (massive open online courses) offered by the world’s most respected universities including Harvard, MIT and Stanford among others, to learn from globally respected professors. Dr. Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, UK and author of the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ computer experiment (1999) in New Delhi which prompted him to develop SOLE (self-organised learning environments) which marries the self and peer-to-peer learning capabilities of children with digital technology, believes that with the invention of the Internet, the value premises and grammar of education have changed. “Technology has always been important for education when used correctly. This has been so since the blackboard was invented, followed by paper, writing, printing and books. But in our time, its the Internet that is causing the big change. For the first time history students have instant access…
