By Subhash Chandra Garg
Education, at its core, is teachers/masters imparting knowledge (of, for example, human body, culture and geography) and skills (literacy, numeracy, use of machines, construction and computers) to learners. Schools (or any other institution) are only mediums for enabling delivery of knowledge and skills.
Knowledge and skills constantly evolve and accumulate. The medium of delivering education also evolves and changes to suit the demands and technologies of times.
In agricultural societies, teachers acquired knowledge by committing it to memory and delivered to students using their voice and bodily actions (Vedas have come to us in this manner). They also acquired and delivered skills by physically performing it. In the industrial society, teachers/trainers acquired knowledge and skills, committed it to the books and used infrastructure of schools and other aids to transfer the same to students.
Industrial societies are fast morphing into digital societies.
Data is the basic building block of digital society. New knowledge is fast accumulating about data, data sciences, databases, data-based products, services and assets, digital technologies and so much more. In the emerging digital societies, students need to learn this new knowledge and skills, in addition to the relevant knowledge and skills of agricultural and industrial societies.
The medium of delivering education and skills in the digital society is rapidly changing. Education technologies or edtech is fast emerging as the medium of delivering knowledge and skills in the digital society. Edtech is a much more powerful and productive medium. Education can be delivered directly by one teacher to many students or customised for an individual student. Edtech removes the constraint of teacher and student to be in close physical proximity. Versatility allows organisation of knowledge in words, pictures, videos, among others, for delivering education and skills in a much better and more understandable manner. Edtech is evolving to permit the use of even machines to deliver education and skills using artificial intelligence.
There are certain perceived advantages of physical schools. While edtech is evolving to complement the experiences of real schools, school teachers, aided and empowered by edtech solutions, can combine the advantages of both. Education is overly regulated in India. Only schools set up or recognised by the government can impart education. Further, education is only not-for-profit. Even skills education is completely not-for-profit.
Only tuition/coaching are unregulated and can be for-profit.
No wonder, edtech enterprises have entered the coaching, tuition and test preparation segment. Some edtech enterprises do enter into speciality segments where regulatory loopholes exist. There is no concept of digital school as yet where education and skills can be delivered fully or partially using edtech.
The world is going digital. Banks, commerce, games, entertainment and what you name are fast becoming digital. It’s time India conceptualises and accepts digital schools and edtech. Regulations for controlling edtech are coming (the government issued an advisory on December 23, 2021). Parents and students were advised to be careful while opting for online content and coaching offered by edtech companies. Edtech enterprises were classified as e-commerce enterprises and consumer protection (e-commerce) rules 2020 were extended to them. The Advertisement Council of India’s code regulating advertisements was also made applicable. The government has also announced its intention to frame a policy for the edtech sector.
To ward off the government’s potential interference, edtech institutions, after forming the India EdTech Consortium, have adopted a code of conduct and established a two-tier grievance redressal mechanism for addressing the areas/concerns underlined in the government’s advisory. The government, educational community and edtech industry should work together to form policy and regulatory regimes for digital schools and edtech players.
First, to seize the competitive advantage, recognise that a fast developing digital society and economy requires mainstreaming of digital education and that education is best delivered using edtech. Second, current laws and regulations need to be rewritten to evolve both fully digital and part physical-part digital schools with shared physical facilities and edtech at the core of education. Third, free the skills education system from the constraint of not-for-profit. Permit private enterprise in skills education system. Many of the services in traditional education system can also be opened for edtech enterprises. Fourth, open the education system to foreign competition and obtain concessions from other nations on a reciprocal basis for the Indian edtech industry to capture global education markets.
India did exceedingly well in capturing the global IT services market as there were no constraining regulations like there are in the education ecosystem. We can repeat this success in education with digital schools, edtech policies and light-touch regulations.
The author is chief policy advisor, Shubhanjali, the author of ‘The $10 Trillion Dream’, and former finance secretary, Government of India.
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