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(Shashwat Singh is a first year student at the Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad).
Introduction India has seen a dramatic shift from the traditional classroom to the online mode of learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Private institutions have stepped up their game by conducting online classes on a regular basis while public institutions are trying to align themselves to this new pedagogy and create a level playing field for their students. Apart from the universities turning to online platforms like Zoom and Google Meet to conduct live classes; the MHRD has initiated eighty two undergraduate non-engineering Massive Online Open Courses on its SWAYAM platform in order to reach out to a bigger audience and heavily bring down the costs incurred by the students in the education sector. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (‘MHRD’) and the University Grants Commission (‘UGC’) have released extensive guidelines on the online conduct of classes and seem to be greatly enthusiastic about this new culture of learning which many believe will be the new normal in the post COVID-19 world. However, what many fail to realize is that online education comes with a huge disparity in terms of starting point for the students from disadvantaged backgrounds who the author believes are the primary stakeholders. What confronts the status quo? Access to education for all comes under the wide ambit of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution and should be prioritized while framing any public policy. However, only 8% households in India with members aged between five and twenty-four have access to a computer and an internet connection. It is a forgone conclusion that this digital exclusion disproportionately affects students from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Sections. The Kerala High Court upheld the Right to Internet in its 2019 judgement in Faheema Shirin R.K v. State of Kerala. Relying on resolutions passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations General Assembly, it noted that there was no domestic law in this respect. It further based its rationale on the Supreme Court decision in Vishaka v Rajasthan where it was held that international conventions and resolutions could be read into fundamental rights in the absence of domestic law or inconsistencies. The Kerala HC held that the “right to have access to the internet is a part of the right to education as well as the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”. Currently, differently-abled students are also left behind due to unavailability of extensive online learning modules in Indian Sign Language. Furthermore, access to internet comes at an exorbitant cost; and not everyone has the access to high speed Wi-Fi at home. Add to it, the safety concerns that online learning raises in terms of unauthorized entries and lack of digital literacy amongst the students and teachers alike. Despite concerns raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs on the use of Zoom, colleges across the country have continued its usage as a meeting platform, thus, subjecting students to the possibility of unethical hacking and aggravated data privacy concerns. Privacy, including informational privacy, is intrinsic to right to life under Article 21. In K.S Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India unanimously held that right to privacy is a fundamental right and integral to the freedoms guaranteed under Part III of the Indian Constitution. Education is an entry in the Concurrent List of the Schedule VII and, therefore, a shared responsibility of the Union and the states. State institutions offering education in vernacular languages are the worst hit due to dearth of translated content on online digital repositories. The Draft National Education Policy (‘NEP’) 2019 highlights the dire need to set up special cells for translating “educational materials from the state language to English and vice-versa.” It would be reasonable to assume that students already marginalized due to their social or economic status are facing aggravated uncertainty now that education has moved online. Historical Role of Traditional Classrooms Dr. Ambedkar was a firm believer in the role of colleges in educating and uniting dalits for a struggle against the casteism that pervaded the Indian society and to champion the cause of Dalit emancipation. He was a source of inspiration for the educated men and women who spearheaded the Dalit Panther Movement in 1972. Affirmative action, as enshrined under Article 16 of the Indian Constitution, is about bringing the marginalized communities to the mainstream narrative and online education does the opposite of that because of the differential access to resources as outlined above. The brick-and-mortar classrooms become critical not because of the physical space they offer to the students but due to the mental space which allows students to pose unique questions at their professors. Noted historian Prof. Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Chancellor at Ashoka University, remarked in an interview that he found students asking fewer questions online. Lack of sufficient eye contact, distractions of home environment, and diminished motivation in students contribute to such behavioral patterns. Traditional classrooms versus Online classrooms Unlike online classrooms, traditional classrooms offer the unique opportunity of ‘unlearning’ to the students in terms of gaining from each other’s lived experiences and breaking biases and pre-conceived notions about other communities. Colleges in India include students from varied caste, cultural, religious and economic backgrounds. In order to create an inclusive system, reservation as a form of ‘positive discrimination’ is offered to the students from less privileged backgrounds. This in itself is a testimony to the fact that colleges are conceptualized a ‘melting pot’ for the students from varied backgrounds. Despite all these efforts, absence of a safe space continues to elude students from under privileged communities. Abhishek Asha Kumar, a student at the National Law School of India University who belongs to a scheduled caste (‘SC’), has poignantly written about law schools serving to reinforce the casteist notions that exist outside the school. He has recounted how a constant volley of demeaning remarks such as "Dude, how do these SCs come into this college?" only served to aggravate his mental agony. It is at times like these that a professor’s role in offering a safe space for catharsis to the victimized students and in creating empathetic students comes into picture. On the other hand, online higher education only reinforces the elitism that is prevalent in Indian colleges, and someone like Dr. B.R Ambedkar would have been the first to criticize it. The UGC has made extensive recommendations to the higher universities for addressing caste-based discrimination and monitoring the performance of such students. Online higher education does quite the contrary; it makes the disadvantaged students feel ill-treated by removing them from the mainstream narrative and consequently taking away their right to a dignified life as cherished under Article 21 of the Constitution. By limiting student discourse to an elite group of students, it adversely affects disadvantaged students’ ability to pitch their voice academically and compete with their peers; henceforth, a violation of their fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a). Furthermore, Article 46 of the Constitution directs the state to promote educational and economic interests of SCs, STs, and other weaker sections. This is a pressing reality for government to realize and cautiously deal with before full-fledged inclusion of online higher education in any forthcoming education policy. Online learning essentially creates a pitfall for the marginalized students. In the name of providing access to a massive audience, students from disadvantaged backgrounds have to undergo a transition from being vulnerable to being invisible. What can be done? There is an urgency to come up with a comprehensive online pedagogy which the teachers can adhere to while imparting online education. Currently, while some teachers conduct classes on digital platforms like Zoom and Google Meet, others share podcasts with their students, still others resort to creating power point presentations and sharing online reading material. Lack of a Standard Operating Procedure (‘SOP’) has contributed to the same. Also, imparting digital literacy to the teachers is the need of the hour so that those who are uncomfortable with the use of technology may not be left behind. On similar lines, the Draft NEP emphasizes the need of online teacher development modules for the Continuous Professional Development (‘CPD’) of teachers and effectively bolster online education. While telecom operators like Orange and Vodafone are providing free internet services for distance education in African countries, such practices could be extended to India to reach out to the students in the remote parts of the country. In order to bridge the great disparity that exists in terms of accessibility, alternatives like use of community radio and television broadcasts for educational purposes can be adequately utilized. The current situation is marked by mental instability and inability to concentrate; therefore, addressing the psychological concerns of teachers and students is paramount to creating sufficient motivation in them to teach and learn. Conclusion Online learning can at best complement classroom learning; it can never be its substitute. Undoubtedly, it has its own benefits in terms of lower infrastructure and economic costs for the government, but the role of human interaction in developing holistic individuals cannot be denied. Higher education should be all-encompassing in nature. It should not become the illusionary ‘blue eyes’ which the character of Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ so longed for that it led to her experiencing ‘racial self-loathing’. Thereby, it becomes paramount for the government to come up with a sustainable SOP for online higher education aimed at the primary stakeholders-- the under privileged students. - Shashwat Singh
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