Webinar 7
Caste, Covid-19 and the Public Education System in India
Streamed on 27 November 2021
The foundations of academic freedom as a basic human right include the ability, capacity and right to think, and the nurturing of a critical consciousness. As India went into lockdown within hours in March 2020, the government fast-tracked its “New Education Policy 2020” and also announced its drive for “online education”.
A year and half on, emerging analyses show that a significant proportion of school students from the most socio-economically marginalised communities have not only lost more than a year of education but are also forgetting their prior learnings. Access to and continuation of higher education has also been significantly affected.
Education experts have also been expressing concerns regarding many aspects of the NEP2020, including its casteised underpinnings that will encourage re-establishment of graded inequality in Indian society, and the NEP's celebration of online education.
This webinar discusses the harms and benefits of the online education project instituted during the Covid pandemic and the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP2020) on the public education system in India.
Panellists
◆ Akram Dhalait Independent Researcher, Maharashtra, India, Research Team Member, The School Children’s Online and Offline Learning (SCHOOL) Study
◆ Beena Pallical General Secretary, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), Delhi, India [Note: Beena was not able to attend the webinar but her work and the NCDHR research informed the conceptualisation of this webinar]
◆ Gunjan Sharma Faculty Member, School of Education Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi, India
◆ Mohit Verma Bahujan Economists; Research Team Member, The SCHOOL Study; Research Associate, Good Business Lab, India
Moderator
◆ Maithri Research Master's in Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
This webinar is co-hosted by InSAF India, India Civil Watch International, Ambedkar King Study Circle (California), Scholars At Risk, the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam, The Forum on Education in Asia (UCL), and the SIU University Honors Program
Further Reading
Locked Out: Emergency report on school Education (2021). The SCHOOL Team, India
Field Studies in Education (2015-2021). Azim Premji University, India. A series of reports covering various aspects of public education in India.
Confronting the pandemic: response and recovery for Dalit and Adivasi students (2021). National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, India.
Aarushi Kalra and Mohit Verma (2021). A cost-benefit analysis can’t capture the social justice aspect of scholarships. The Wire, 31 July 2021.
Gunjan Sharma. (2019). Policy and regulatory changes in teacher education in India: Concerns, debates and contestations. Economic and Political Weekly, 54(2) (Featured Articles: Engage)
Please also see the videos below:
Bahujan Economists: Locked Out. A Discussion on SCHOOL Survey, 2021.
Testimony of Hamidul, a young boy from Assam on his experience of accessing public education in India.
InSAF India: Critically Appraising India’s Education Policy 2020.