Why Education Infrastructure Matters For Learning

The coronavirus pandemic is indeed disrupting nearly every aspect of children’s lives – their health, development, learning, behavior, their families’ economic security, and their mental health. Education has been hit particularly hard with 1.53 billion learners out of school and 184 country-wide school closures, impacting 87.6% of the world’s total enrolled learners. It is now clearly emerging that the COVID-19-induced disruption to schooling will have learning gaps in children and for most children, this gap will persist through their lifetimes. A tiny minority of children are fortunate to continue their learning experience through online learning. While online learning may not be a perfect substitute for physical classrooms, it is still the optimum solution in these unprecedented times. One of the pertinent questions that emerge from parents is the impact of screen time. Some parents, especially of primary school children, are skeptical of online learning and want to discontinue onl

  This blog illustrates a point of view on the recommended language policy for urban and semi-rural schools in India, with inputs from research findings from the fields of cognitive neuroscience, early childhood psychology, bilingualism, language learning. An attempt has also been made to marry this research with policy and socio-economic realities in India. Current Language Policy in Indian Schools Thanks to India’s rich cultural diversity, the country does not have a national language but has 22 ‘official languages’ (including English). Since the states were formed on linguistic lines, each of the 28 states has its native language(s) as the official language(s). English, due to its ‘lingua Franca status, is an aspiration language for most Indians – for learning English is viewed as a ticket to economic prosperity and social status. Thus almost all private schools in India are English medium. Many public schools, due to political compulsions, have the state’s official languages as the