The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting many colleges and universities to abruptly and comprehensively adopt online learning, remote work, and other activities to help contain the spread of the virus. In the past decade, institutions have recognized the importance of advising, early alerts, degree planning, and other services to help students attain their academic goals affordably and efficiently. A wide range of applications and new technologies to support student success are now available. It may prove invaluable to help students adapt to fully remote learning. EDUCAUSE data reveal that all institutions, students, faculty, and staff are ready and able to use these technologies during the pandemic.¹

This research summary is one of a series of reports outlining higher education’s readiness to adapt in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Many Institutions Are Using Technology to Support Student Success?

Core technologies that support student success include advising center management and an advising case management system that tracks student interactions (70% partial or institution-wide deployment).

Other data and analytics technologies and practices support managing, sharing, and decision-making related to student success.

Some types of institutions are more prepared—or less prepared—than others to use technology to support student success.  Bachelor’s institutions, which typically place the strongest emphasis on campus-based learning, are least ready to use data and technology to support student success, while associate’s institutions, which generally adopt learning and instructional technologies more rapidly, are the most prepared.

Are Faculty, Staff, and Students Able to Use Technology to Support Student Success?

Having technologies and analytics is one step. Providing students, faculty, and staff with the access and training to use these systems is a critical additional step. More than half of institutions take steps to facilitate the adoption and use of student success technologies by faculty, advisors, and other staff. Six in ten institutions provide applications that enable students to access data such as current academic standing and resources including tips for improvement. Students at institutions that don’t provide such access might struggle to track their progress during times when it’s difficult to get such feedback, and faculty, advisors, and other staff may lack sufficient training or even access to use tools to help students.

Do Institutions Have Technology to Help Students with Credential Planning?

Students need to develop, monitor, and adjust their academic plans to ensure they are on track to attain the credentials they seek as expeditiously as possible; sometimes that entails managing academic credits across multiple institutions. This need may be even more pressing given the current disruption and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. Fortunately, most institutions have a core set of applications to help students plan their educational programs and manage credits, even across institutions. However, fewer than half of institutions have technologies that can recommend courses or degree programs for students based on their academic record or other factors. Most students who have used these technologies find them very or extremely useful

The COVID-19 Corona virus global pandemic is creating a global learning crisis in addition to a global health crisis. 82% of the world’s learners are no longer in traditional schooling or education programs and UNESCO is recommending online learning and education technology to to reach learners remotely.

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development developed a list of nine ACR GCD-funded solutions to respond to educational needs during the global COVID-19 Digital Response. I’ve added a 10th edutech solution. I invite you to add more in the comments.

Each solution is available for free in multiple languages and, once downloaded, does not require a continuous Internet connection. Ministries of Education, educational development organizations and parents can leverage these tools to support children’s educational needs during school closures.

Edutech Solutions for COVID-19 Response

1. Global Digital Library

This open source digital library offers free accessible eBooks in more than 40 languages readable on the web, mobile, or for downloading and printing. The books can also be translated or localized directly on the platform.

2. Feed the Monster

A winner of ACR GCD and Norad’s EduApp4Syria prize to support the education needs of out-of-school Syrian refugee children, Feed the Monster is an early literacy digital gaming app that teaches children reading and writing fundamentals while collecting and growing their pet monsters. Available in more than 50 languages on Google Play, and in Arabic on the App Store, research shows the app improves children’s early literacy skills and psychosocial wellbeing.

3. Antura and the Letters

Also a winner of an EduApp4Syria prize, Antura and the Letters is available in English and Arabic on Google Play, the App Store and Windows download. Designed for children age 4 and older, the app enables children to catch letters hidden around the world, solve puzzles and earn gifts, alongside Antura the dog. Like Feed the Monster, the research conducted on use of Antura and the Letters shows improvement in children’s early literacy skills and psychosocial wellbeing.

4. Bloom

The winner of ACR GCD’s Enabling Writers prize, Bloom enables teachers, parents and children to easily create leveled and decodable children’s books in any language. Books can be adapted from shell books, or new resources created using Bloom software’s templates for basic books, picture dictionaries and wall calendars, with images available from its free illustration library. Don’t want to create the books yourself? Access the Bloom Library, with basic leveled and decodable books available in more than 220 languages.

5. eKitabu

Winner of multiple ACR GCD prizes, eKitabu offers dozens of books for free download and readable via free e-reader software. eKitabu’s Studio KSL (Kenyan Sign Language) and Studio RSL (Rwandan Sign Language) also offer several sign language videos and sign language storybooks to support accessible, early grade reading.

6. World Around You

Funded through ACR GCD’s Sign On For Literacy prize, WAY enables communities to create content in local and national sign languages and share it in WAY’s open content digital library of folktales. The digital libraries are viewable from any web browser and can be remixed by anyone, including children, with simple text and video editing tools.

7. Bookshare

Children and adults with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, dyslexia and cerebral palsy can access thousands of accessible books on Benetech’s Bookshare platform. Benetech was a winner of ACR GCD’s 2014 grant competition, using the Bookshare platform to provide students who are blind in India access to accessible reading materials. The library is provided to individuals with disabilities for free or low cost, depending on the support of local partners in your region.

8. Kit Kit School

A finalist of ACR GCD’s Sign On For Literacy prize, Kit Kit School is a tablet-based early learning program that includes a suite of games, books, videos, and art and music tools in Swahili and English to support children in learning literacy and math skills independently.

9. Sema

A finalist of ACR GCD’s EduApp4Syria prize, the Sema package of apps enable children to teach themselves how to read, write and do basic numeracy. The curriculum was designed in collaboration with pedagogy experts and teachers in Africa.

10. Worldreader

I don’t know if Worldreader received ACR-GCD, yet Worldreader is a standout educational resource and needs inclusion on a list like this. Worldreader provides people in the developing world with free access to a library of digital books via e-readers and mobile phones. Since 2010, over 13 million people across 47 countries have read from Worldreader’s digital library of thousands of e-books and they have a special COVID-19 effort. Main image is copyright Worldreader.

By Droupadi Murmu

I take this opportunity to present my votes of thanks to all those guidepost who really acted as lightening pillars to enlighten our way throughout this project that has led to successful and satisfactory completion of this study. I am highly thankful to Mr. Pankaj Jain for her active support, valuable time and advice, whole-hearted guidance, sincere cooperation and pains-taking involvement during the study and in completing the assignment of preparing the said paper within the time stipulated. Without the active participation of our teachers it would have been extremely difficult for me to prepare the project in a time bound framework.

HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

Indian education history is very rich and motivating. In the ancient days, gurus and scholars impart education orally, but after the development of letters, it took the form of writing. Palm leaves and barks of trees were used for teaching, and this in turn helped in spreading of the written literature. Temples and community centres often took the role of school. When Buddhism spread in India, education become available to everyone and this was the time when some world famous educational institutions were established like Nalanda, Vikramshila and Takshashila. History has taken particular care to give Nalanda University, which flourished from the fifth to 13th century AD, full credit for its brilliance. This university had around 10,000 resident students and teachers on its roll at one time. These students included Chinese, Sri Lankan, Korean and other international scholars. It was in the 11th century that the Muslims recognized elementary and secondary schools. This led to the forming of few universities too at cities like Delhi, Lucknow and Allahabad. Medieval period saw excellent interaction between Indian and Islamic customs in all fields of knowledge like theology, religion, philosophy, fine arts, painting, architecture, arithmetic, medicine and astronomy. Later, when British arrived in India, English education came into being with the help of the European missionaries. Since then, Western education gained advances in the country. With hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges affiliated to them, India has positioned itself happily as a country that provides superiority higher education to its people in specific and to the world in general.

PRESENT EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA

The present education system in India mainly comprises of-

1. primary education,
2. secondary education,
3. senior secondary education and
4. higher education

Elementary education consists of eight years of education. Each of secondary and senior secondary education consists of two years of education. Higher education in India starts after passing the higher secondary education or the 12th standard. Depending on the stream(Arts,Commerce or Science). Doing graduation in India can take three to five years. Post graduate courses are generally of two to three years of duration. After completing post graduation, scope for doing research in various educational institutes also remains open. The growing receiving of distance learning courses and growth of the open university system is also causative a lot in the democratization of higher education in india.

WORLD CLASS HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTES IN INDIA:

There are quite a good number of educational institutes in India that can compete with the best educational institutes of the world and made India recognizable in the International Education. Some of them are as follows-

Ø The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs),

Ø Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs),

Ø Indian Institutes of Science, National Law Schools,

Ø Jawaharlal Nehru University are some such institutes.

FACILITIES OF EDUCATION TO MARGINALIZED IN INDIA:

As education is the means for bringing socio- economic transformation in a society, various measures are being taken to enhance the access of teaching to the marginalized sections of the society. One such measure is the introduction of the reservation system in the institutes of higher education. Under the present law:-

(1) 7.5% seats in the higher educational institutes are reserved for the

scheduled tribes,

(2) 15% for scheduled castes and 27% for the non creamy layers of the

Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

PRESENT SCENARIO OF INDIAN EDUCATION :

Soon after independence in 1947, making education available to all had become a priority for the government. As discrimination on the basis of caste and gender has been a major hurdle in the healthy development of the Indian society, it also restricted the educational development of the nation as a whole. The 86th constitutional amendment has also made elementary

education a fundamental right for the children between the age group- 6 to 14. According to the 2001 census:-

Ø The total literacy rate in India is 65.38% .

Ø The female literacy rate is only 54.16%

The gap between rural and urban literacy rate is also very significant in India. This is evident from the fact that only 59.4% of rural population are literate as against 80. 3% urban

population according to the 2001 census

PUBLIC PRIMARY EDUCATION IN INDIA- AN

OVERVIEW:

Early childhood education in India is subject to two extreme but contrary deficiencies. On the one hand, millions of young children in lower income groups, especially rural and girl children, comprising nearly 40% of first grade entrants never complete primary school. Even among those who do, poorly qualified teachers, very high student-teacher ratios, inadequate teaching materials and out- moded teaching methods result in a low quality of education that often imparts little or no real learning. It is not uncommon for students completing six years of primary schooling in village public schools to lack even rudimentary reading and writing skills.

PRIVATE PRIMARY EDUCATION IN INDIA- AN OVERVIEW:

Cildren attending urban schools, especially middle and upper class children in private schools, are subjected to extreme competitive pressures from a very early age to acquire basic language skills and memorize vast amounts of information in order to qualify for admission into the best schools. Parents and teachers exert intense pressure on young children to acquire academic skills at an age when children should be given freedom and encouraged to learn as a natural outcome of their curiosity, playfulness and eagerness to experiment. Necessary steps should be taken to avoid unnecessary pressure for childrens.

GOVERNANCE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION:

Schemes undertaken by the government:

Ø State-wise Allocation of Central Government’s Share Made

Ø Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in India (2006-2007)

State-wise Amount Spent on Elementary Education from Component of Prambhik Shiksha Kosh in India (2006-2007 and 31.10.2007) State-wise Targets and Achievements under Sarva Shiksha Abhiayan (SSA) in India (2002-2007) Selected State-wise Number of Additional Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) Sanctioned in India (As on 01.02.2006)

Funds Released to North Eastern States under CentrallySponsored Schemes for Operation Blackboard and Non Formal Education in India (1997-1998 to 2000-2001) Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources under Centrally Sponsored Schemes for Elementary Education for North Eastern States in India (1999-2000 and 2000-2001 Progress Recorded under Shiksha Karmi Project in India (upto september2001)

Efforts are also being taken to improve the access to higher education among the women of India by setting up various ecational institutes exclusively for them or eserving seats in the already existing institutes.

Development so far:-

Under SSA,

Ø 1.47 lakh primary schools have been opened across the country,

Ø 1.23 lakh primary schools have been upgraded to have upper primary classes.

Ø 9.86 lakh teachers have been recruited,

Ø children are provided free textbooks,

Ø teachers are provided periodic in-service training,

Ø Mid-day meal is provided to all children in classes 1-8 in

Ø Government and Government aided schools.

GOVERNANCE OF SCHOOL EDUCATION

The National Council Of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is the legal body for governing the curriculam matters for school education in India. The NCERT provides support and technical assistance to a number of schools in India and give guidance to many educational policies in India. Different Indian curriculam bodies governing school Education in India are as follows:-

1. The State Government Board
2. The Central Board Of Secondary Education ( CBSE ) Board
3. The Council For The Indian School Certificate Examinations ( CISCE) Board
4. The Indian Certificate Of Secondary Education ( ICSE ) Board
5. The National Institute Of Open Schooling ( NIOS ) Board

GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In order to develop the higher education system, the government had established the

University Grants Commission in 1953(UGC) . The primary role of UGC has been to regulate the standard and spread of higher education in India. There has been a marked progress in the expansion of higher education if we look at the increase of higher educational institutes in India. The higher education system in India comprise of more than 17000 colleges, 20 central universities, 217 State Universities, 106 Deemed to Universities and 13 institutes of National importance. Under the Indian constitution, various minority groups can also set up their own educational institutes. This number will soon inflate as the setting up of 30 more central universities, 8 new IITs, 7 IIMs and 5 new Indian Institutes of science are now proposed.

References

Dehalwar, K., & Sharma, S. N. (2024). Politics in the Name of Women’s Reservation. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X241262562