1/21: Since centuries primary education had the brick and mortar delivery model in India. Over a period of time, with Government support, the delivery model evolved to cater all sections of the society. #righttolearn
2/21: Now central and state Government and local authorities are obligated to provide free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. #righttolearn
3/21: The brick and mortal delivery model, for primary education, has never been uniform across all strata of society in India. There are public schools and private schools at various price segments offering a choice for all of us based on our financial viability. #righttolearn
4/21: Even there are options to choose a syllabus for the child from state syllabus to international syllabus in India. This is no different in Karnataka. Government does not impose a specific syllabus in a school. We have choices. #righttolearn
5/21: Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the brick and mortal model, for primary education, has collapsed. The focus completely shifts to online delivery model which has been borrowed from those offered for professional courses. #righttolearn
6/21: Even the tools for delivering online education, in India, started becoming relatively simpler to use. This is the new normal. However, few private companies were already offering online content even for primary students well before the onset of COVID-19. #righttolearn
7/21: Private companies offering online content for primary education in India are similar to private tutors. Parents purchase their services to supplement school teaching. Government never imposed any restrictions on their operations and continue to do so even now. #righttolearn
8/21: Even with new evolving online model in India, central and state Government and local authorities are still obligated to provide free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India. #righttolearn
9/21: For private Indian schools, Government, till now, never practically interfered on how education is actually imparted through brick and mortar model except providing a choice of syllabus and monitoring the framework for law and order. #righttolearn
10/21: For delivering primary education, through brick and mortar model, different private schools have different approaches to class decor, uniform, teaching methodologies, teaching infrastructure, hours of education, residential mode, non-residential mode etc. #righttolearn
11/21: The private schools accordingly charge parents based on the value propositions. Many private schools deliver content daily through videos in the class and Government never stipulated the duration of watching those videos during regular school hours. #righttolearn
12/21: The brick and mortar model is well established and many Indian parents do not regularly keep track of daily school activities. Some parents of private schools may not be aware about how much time the child spends watching video during regular class hours. #righttolearn
13/21: So now that we are in the process of shifting to online education, for primary classes, why Government of Karnataka is putting irreversible brakes to primary education of children and resorting to lowest common denominator? #righttolearn
14/21: Government of Karnataka first bans online classes and then allows online classes for such a restrictive duration that does not effectively cater to the purpose of primary education. Who gains with this approach? There are only losses. #righttolearn
15/21: And Why Government of Karnataka is shying away from the responsibility of providing free and compulsory online education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India? #righttolearn
16/21: I believe that Government of Karnataka has all the resources and financial strength to enable online education for children who need support from the Government. #righttolearn
17/21: Government of Karnataka has the added advantage of the IT capital of India and can easily garner support from the best minds and organizations of Bengaluru city. And I am sure that the technology experts of Bengaluru will be gladly willing to offer help. #righttolearn
18/21: As a next step Government of Karnataka should open up the world of online education to all children with enough investments and establish a balanced approach for educational institutions and private companies to sustain an innovative socio-economic model. #righttolearn
19/21: The future of school education will be a flexible combination of offline and online model at a lower cost. We are unlikely to go back to the days prior to COVID-19. Even otherwise, we will not be willing to completely give up the benefits of online education. #righttolearn
20/21: Instead of spending time and energy to assess the duration of online synchronous learning, Government of Karnataka must focus to reform the private school education sector and enforce more financial transparency in the private school sector. #righttolearn
21/21: Government of Karntaka should pioneer reforms that includes frameworks for combined offline and online delivery models of school education with lower the cost of education and processes and practices for strict monitoring of pre-defined KPIs for schools. #righttolearn
