digitalLEARNING-Aug-2010-[33-36]-ICT-Enabled Education as a Right to Education An Imperative

case study

ICT-Enabled Education as a Right to Education: An Imperative

Dr. Sudarsan Padmanabhan and Josephine A.

This paper argues that Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled education should be an integral part of the Right to Education Act (2009) passed by the Parliament of India. This paper also presents an ethical argument for the formulation of a National Policy that would ensure ICT Enabled Education as a part of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or ‘Education for All’ was a massive programme instituted by the Government of India in 2000-2001 to enroll 205 million children in schools and retain them until they complete primary schooling.

Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, which ensures education for all children in the age group of 6-14 years, came into effect from April 1, 2010 and SSA is the vehicle to implement the RTE. Assessment of the SSA by the Joint Review Mission (2009) indicates a considerable increase in the enrollment rate while nearly 2.7 million children drop out of school every year. According to Karin Hulshof, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Representative-India, the RTE would directly benefit about millions out-of-school children in the age group 6-14 years ensuring quality education; this would also lead to the increase in the economic productivity of the country.

Despite the tremendous success of the SSA, the challenges to the universalisation of primary education are manifold. This paper proposes that an ICT enabled education, as a right to education has the potential to transform the system of education under the SSA and also address key issues such as increasing number of out-of-school children, dearth of qualified teachers and imparting quality education. Children belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society often lack access to quality education at the primary school

level and tend to remain as unskilled labourers languishing without any hope or opportunities for upward mobility.

Such a situation has major implications for India’s economy and socio-political development. In this context, the prospects of ICT enabled education as an integral part of the right to education holds significance particularly as an effective tool of imparting education to the poor and rural children. The computer-aided education could be utilised to facilitate creative teaching and to make the process of learning more

informative and interactive. Introduction of ICT enabled education as part of the SSA also has the potential to attract the under-privileged children to school, accelerate the rate of enrolment and retain children in schools. A national policy on ICT enabled education as a right to education assumes greater significance as the Government of India is intent on preparing the future generations to face the challenges of ‘knowledge economy’ of the digital world lest the ‘digital divide’ that creates a chasm between the information rich and the poor widens the

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socio-economic inequities drastically. An ICT oriented SSA does not aim at creating technocrats for the global economy but would rather harness the potential of the computer aided technology to provide a knowledge platform for those who need it the most, which would enable the development of the marginalised and the deprived sections of the society and the development of the community as a whole.

This article analyses why ICT enabled education should be mandated with the SSA beginning with the under-privileged segments of the Indian society as a moral imperative based on John Rawls’ theory of justice. An ICT enabled education becomes a right when viewed from the paradigm of social justice. John Rawls in his Theory of Justice advocates two principles of justice based on rational choice theory to ensure equitable political and social arrangements in a society.

The ICT enabled education as a right to education is justified under the ‘difference principle’ that advocates positive discrimination in favour of the deprived sections of the society.

Right to ICT Enabled Education John Rawls, one of the foremost American political philosophers of the 20th century, advocates two foundational principles of justice for establishing social and political institutions that would ensure equity. The first principle of justice ensures equal civil and political rights while the second one emphasises fair equality of opportunities in the distribution of socioeconomic advantages in the society.

The ‘difference principle’, which is part of the second principle, emphasizes the need for the social systems to be advantageous to the less privileged in the society without adversely affecting other segments of the society. Rawls notes that ‘…the (difference) principle holds that a configuration is efficient whenever it is impossible to change it so as to make some persons (at least one) better off without at the same time making other persons (at least one) worse off.’ Rawls remarks that under ‘difference principle’ the equality of fair opportunity will be ‘democratic equality’ as it is advantageous to everybody. While universalisation of primary education and RTE are justifiable under the first principle, ‘ICT Enabled Education as a right to education at school level’ could be justified under the ‘difference principle’. It implies that the

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denial of primary education is injustice as it is the fundamental right of a citizen and ICT enabled education could be the preferred action of the government done in favour of the disadvantaged sector of the society. Applying the Rawlsian idea of reflective equilibrium, in which the formal law and the substantive notion of fairness are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, the RTE which is the law and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which is the vehicle to realise the RTE would be complete and successful only when the millions of under-privileged children are entrusted with the benefits of an ICT enabled education. Ensuring access to ICT enabled education to the under-privileged children would be a positive discrimination at the behest of the neediest. This is explained pictorially in Figure 1: According to Census 2001, at least 72.2% population live in rural India.

There is high potential for ‘appropriate technology’, which is centred on the

and access to information. Many top technical institutes in India have piloted a number of programmes and proved the scope of appropriate technology in rural development. Some of the e-Agriculture programmes like e-Sagu by IIITHyderabad and aAQUA by IIT-Mumbai benefit many farmers to have better yield in their farms. The use of mobile technology in curative and preventive rural health services, data collection for NREGA scheme and rural online banking with biometric authentication are the new and progressive initiatives in Tamil Nadu

by RTBI, IIT Madras. Sugata Mitra in TED talks highlights how children could be self-taught with the use of computers and utilise it as a medium to aid their school education. While there could be no disagreement about the use of computers as a tool for better learning, the broader socio-cultural experience of the children, the process of learning as a creative activity, and the school as

Figure 1: Rawls’ difference principle in ICT-enabled education as right to education

needs of the neediest and relevant for rural economic growth, social and political development. For instance, e-learning and computer-aided education if accessible in the rural setting could benefit a large number of people in the rural and remote areas, which lack even basic educational resources

a place for dynamic exchange of ideas between teachers and the students are of paramount importance. Learning and education can not be restricted to information-gathering. Schools cannot be assembly lines for technocrats. We propose that it is vital to improve the educational infrastructure in the villages

We propose that it is vital to improve the educational infrastructure in the villages and under-developed areas and ensure access to the Internet at the nodal points in rural villages. This could in turn energise the community as a whole in the path of development.

and under-developed areas and ensure access to the Internet at the nodal points in rural villages. This could in turn energise the community as a whole in the path of development.

To ensure social justice, by applying the Rawlsian difference principle, access to ICT enabled education should become an integral part of the right to education.

In other words, poverty and the need for ICT enabled education are directly proportional to each other. This condition implies that the more the opportunity for ICT enabled education for the less privileged the better the outcome for the society. It also entails the fact that the major challenges of SSA such as imparting quality education and retention of children without dropping out could be addressed in a meaningful way with the application of ICT enabled education coupled with SSA scheme. The following case study proves the proposition as discussed.

Case study The Panchayat Union Middle School in Mangudi village, Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu, around 400 kms. from Chennai, stands as a successful model of public private partnership in implementing ICT enabled education under the SSA. This school has won the ‘Tamil Nadu State Best School Award’ for the year 2007-2008 and the prestigious ‘Ten Star Award for Health and Hygiene’ by the UNICEF. The local and the state media have repeatedly highlighted the innovative approaches in educational management, training and curriculum development introduced by the Headmaster of the Mangudi School, Mr. Jothimani.

In 2004, Jothimani took charge of the school besieged by a plethora of issues ranging from irregularity of children, dropouts, teacher apathy and lack of basic amenities such as drinking water and toilets. The school had a strength

of about 190 students with a number of long absentees. He found that most of the dropouts and the long absentees were from upper primary sections. These children were paid full daily wages of the adults of Rs.100/- in the agricultural farms and so they were forced to accompany their parents.

Jothimani persuaded the parents of the Mangudi village to send their children to school. As the first step to make learning a joyful and creative experience, Jothimani, who had training in computeraided education, introduced audio visual aids and the computers in the class rooms. He persuaded the village community leaders and local politicians to renovate the school and sponsor necessary teaching aids for the school while additional classrooms became a reality with SSA funds.

At present, the school has a computer lab with eight computers, an LCD projector, more than 10 televisions and audio sets to conduct programmes. The Village Education Committee (VEC) of SSA of the School, the local NGOs and educational trusts have donated teaching aids including computers. Jothimani motivated and trained the teachers to use computers as an innovative teaching tool. The school follows Activity-based Learning (ABL) and Active Learning Method (ALM) teaching methodology as mandated by the SSA. The Mangudi School children studying in the upper primary sections are well versed in using MS-word, Excel, Power point, Internet, and Adobe Pagemaker.

All these children also have their own email id and exchange group-wise duties online. They present their weekly assignments in different subjects using power point. There was a tremendous change in the school environment after the introduction of electronic media as a pedagogical tool. Children found the school very interesting and the daily attendance increased from 60-65% to 95-98% on an average with increase in enrolment from 190 to about 250.

There was sustained interest in children for learning and about 95% of graduate students continue their secondary school education as compared to 40-45% earlier.

The parents, who were earlier dependent on the financial support of their children, currently looking for schools that could provide quality education like Mangudi School, at high school level.

The daily attendance remains above

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would be done only if children from all segments of the society are provided with a level playing field to realise their potential. At present, the chasm in access to ICT enabled education is deepening the urban – rural and the privileged – under-privileged divide.

Hence, ICT enabled education should be prioritised as a vital part of the SSA with the rural and under-privileged segments of the society receiving special attention.

Such a policy of positive discrimination favouring the vast majority of the children in India who are from the rural and deprived communities would provide them opportunities to receive quality education enabled by ICT, enhance their individual capabilities, boost their confidence and instill a strong sense of hope for a better future based on justice and equity. \\

Universalisation of education in India becomes an imperative particularly because more than 40% of the world’s second most populatedcountryarechildrenwhowouldbeseekingemployment in the near future. Justice would be done only if children from all segments of the society are provided with a level playing field to realise their potential.

95% throughout, with nil dropouts for the last three years. The parents of the children and the community leaders of the Mangudi village have realised the importance of ICT enabled education and the metamorphosis of the entire village. The Mangudi village community celebrates ICT enabled education and the opportunities that it has opened up to its children in particular and the community in general. People in the village are highly motivated to improve the educational facilities in the school.

At present, the Mangudi School is one of the most sought after schools in the area which would not have been possible without the introduction of computers into the classrooms.

Conclusion India’s progress is ineluctably associated with the programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or Education for All. SSA’s attempt to achieve universal education has been bolstered by the Right to Education Act (2009). Right

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to education should not simply be about empowering the under-privileged population by ensuring access to primary education but also facilitate quality education commensurate with the demands of the age of globalisation, knowledge economy and information technology.

Universalisation of education in India becomes an imperative particularly because more than 40% of the world’s second most populated country are children who would be seeking employment in the near future. Justice

Dr. Sudarsan Padmanabhan

Dr. Sudarsan Padmanabhan is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.

References 1. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ home/education/Will-RTE-fulfil-theSSA-dream/articleshow/5761551. cms 2. http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/02/ stories/2010040262101000.htm 3. Rawls, John, 1999. A Theory of Justice, Revised Edition, The Belknap Press of Harvard University 4. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p.58 5. Rawls, 1999, p.57 http://www. c e n s u s i n d i a . g o v. i n / C e n s u s _ Data_2001/India_at_glance/rural. aspx 6. http://www.solutionexchange-un. net.in/emp/e-discuss/res11070719. pdf 7. http://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/ forum/index 8. http://www.rtbi.in/ideate.html 9. http://www.tedafrica.org/talks/lang/ eng/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_ teach_themselves.html 10. Fieldwork was done by Josephine A.

Josephine A

Josephine A. is a Ph. D. Scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.