As per Dr. Ambedker's views on education: He wanted the people to cultivate the values of freedom and equality among themselves, it is possible only through education. He regarded education as a means to reach the doors of light and perception to remove the regions of darkness and ignorance.

School Drop Outs: 

Currently, the government spending on education is very low in India and stands at 3.4 percent of the GDP. The US might be able to help make it more priority, and nudge the government to increase spending on education. Nearly 265 million people are away from education, according to UIS data for the school year ending 2018. The total 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million of lower secondary school age, and 138 million of upper secondary age. As countries strive to achieve universal primary and secondary education to all by 2030.

At the national level, out of an estimated 20.41 crore children in the age group of 6-13 years, an estimated 60.64 lakh children are out of school. This accounts for 2.97% of the total children in the said age group across states and Union territories in India. The main reason for a higher number of dropouts is girl students mainly the dropouts can be attributed to COVID-19 lockdowns, closure of schools for a long time, job or income of the main breadwinner, and migration to native places.

As per the ASER Report, the drop out ratio of the age group 15-16 years improved considerably in 2021 and it was 6.6% whereas in 2020 it was 16.1% it’s a good sign of improvement

Government Schools attracting students after Post pandemic: 

As per the Minister of Education of Telangana State Mrs. Sabitha Indira Reddy during her press briefing said out of 60 lakh students in the state, 22.61 lakh students are studying in 29,882 government schools. Surprisingly more than 2.5 lakh new admissions in government schools across the state this academic year 2021-22, she further states that out of which 1.25 lakhs students migrated from Private Schools. It’s a forty percent jump towards the government schools. Whereas in Andhra Pradesh the migration is nearly 2 lakh students from private to government schools.

The above tables show us the number of schools available across in India at two points of time. The below table explains the distribution of schools category wise in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

 
As of 14-09-2020

Pratham society of ASER (Annual Status of Education Report):

As per the latest 16, the edition report is based on a phone survey conducted by the Pratham society the percentage of admission in government schools increased across the country from 2020 (65.8%) to now 2021 (70.3%). As per their latest report, 11.8% did not join the schools after reopening of the schools in Telangana state from September 2021 the percentage being 4.6 % at the national level. The admissions in governments schools of UP, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh increased considerably whereas in the North Eastern States the admissions are very low according to ASER Center Director Wilima Wadhwa and Pratham CEO Rukmini Banerji.

The percentage of Tuition going children increased from 32.5% to 40 % in 2021. In Telangana state, the survey was conducted in 270 villages of 3254 families covering 1,115 persons. They have covered nearly 17,184 villages in India covering 76,706 families and 75,234 students of the age group of 5-16 years.

The reason is mainly because of the affordability of the fee and the life and earning has changed for private employees and unable to pay the fee at private schools and parents are compromised to send their children to government schools as they need not pay any fee in government schools.

Cell Phone usage Table: 

Percentage of Children with Access to Smartphone’s (All Classes Average)

The percentage of enrolled children having at least one Smartphone at home has raised 36.5 to 67.6 between 2018-2021. The access to Smartphones increases with age, with 35.4% of students in classes IX and above having contact classes.

Government Lapses: 

In spite of the new admission to government schools, the government could not make proper arrangements and could not make a very good infrastructure for the newly admitted students. Now it is time for the government to act wisely to strengthen the government schools otherwise if life becomes normal again the students can migrate from the government to private schools vice versa.

The below table explains the actual teacher ratio with the strength of the students.

To our surprise, the government has to recruit nearly 20,000 teachers but they could not do the same. Earlier the Telangana government has recruited 12,000 Vidya Volunteers in march 2020 but due to pandemics, they discontinued their services. The Government thinks seriously they incur an expenditure of 85.40 crores for paying the salaries of Vidya Volunteers for six months salaries such that they can even justify by teaching in this crucial time as more number of students are joining the government schools.

Post-COVID Challenges: 

As we have nearly 1.5 million schools are available in India. The Kerala, Tamilnadu states the percentage of literate are more when compared to other states.

The year 2020 has brought huge changes in people's life due to pandemics, the educations scenario has also changed a lot; technical advancement has now become a huge part of a student’s life. The government tried its best and took vital steps to improve the education quality in the country.

As John Drez the famous economist of the world says during his interview with ETV Bharath. The online lessons could not able to justify the poor students who cannot afford to have a smartphone facility. As the law says we need to provide free education to all irrespective of caste, creed, and religion but in reality we have miserably failed to prove free and quality education at the primary level. Due to the pandemic, the education in particular for the last 18 months worsened. Students tend to forget what they have learned and it will be difficult for the children particularly first-class to fifth class to learn online only those children's parent having proper education background could be able to learn. The student whose parents are uneducated could not learn.

Tough Task: 

The lapses of 18-month education we need to bring back them to normal and it is quite an impossible task but, if everyone takes the responsibility with determined effort along with the government we can achieve to bring back to normal to a certain extent. What we need to educate them is the basics like reading and writing skills in our mother tongue. We need to teach them mathematics and other subjects with basics and we may call it to bridge courses such that they can be promoted to higher classes.

As per the CEO Rukmuni Banarji.” These (Classes I and II never attended an in-person class) students who entered the school system after the pandemic will require time to settle down, get ready for the formal education system.. This is essential as these students do not even have the experience of pre-primary schools or Anganwadis.

Measures: 

1. We need to come out/overcome form the hardships and difficulties we have undergone pertaining to education during a pandemic
2. The students have undergone psychological stress during the pandemic period and slowly we need to bring it back to normal with collective efforts of parents, teachers, and school management.
3. Marks are not important at this juncture and what we could see at least they attend the schools regularly and we need to motivate them to attend school. Each period we need to give some break such that they can concentrate for the next period.
4. We need to improve their attention/concentration on studies gradually by teaching g their interest topics or by doing activates pertaining to their topics.
5. Teachers are not supposed to give stress by giving lots of homework and assignment till the students are set for the complete academic year of 2021-22.
6. The government of Telangana has also reduced the syllabus to 70 percent and even they have reduced no of papers from 11 to 6 for tenth class students this academic year 2021-22.
7. It is advisable to have half a day’s only for class 1 to V students for the academic year 2021-22
8. We need to teach them basics which they have forgotten in 18 months period particularly from 1 to 5 class students like reading writing abilities
9. For Higher Classes we need to teach them only concept-oriented topics such that they can remember forever not the rote method as has been indicated in our National educational Policy 2020.
10. We need to teach them the importance of wearing masks, cleaning of hands regularly, and maintaining the distance of 6 feet, as we were practicing during the pandemic and the same may be continued further to overcome such problems in near future.
11. We need to give them nutritious food as we were taken care of this aspect during a pandemic. Children, in general, skip their breakfast we should see that they can have their breakfast by giving oats or cornflakes during breakfast. Don’t send your children to school without taking breakfast.
12. Finally, the parent plays an important role by daily/regularly interacting with children and motivating them to attend school and should create an enthusiasm to attend the school. The parents should appreciate their day-to-day activity at the school.
13. Collective Responsibility:  To bring back to students from the lapses of 18 months during a pandemic and it's a collective responsibility of the parents, teachers, and society. Hope we will come back very soon with the collective efforts of all. 

.    .    .

Source:

• Various English and Telugu newspapers report on post-pandemic Scenario of education
• www.pratham.org