A UNICEF research report last year revealed that 80% students in the age group of 14-18 years showed a drop in their learning levels due to the remote learning system that was followed after the pandemic struck. Student-teacher engagement plays a large role not only in a student’s perception of subjects but also in overall social development. Teacher-student relationship is a solid predictor of success in children's learning, especially for younger ones.
However, since most students had little or no contact with their teachers during the pandemic-led closure of schools, the trajectory of their progress showed a downward trend. This clearly highlights and proves that teachers can never be replaced, no matter the technological advancements. The online mode is just a tool to strengthen and make the teaching delivery-efficient but not a replacement for teachers in the system.
Teacher-student engagement
A student receiving constructive criticism or being praised for his/her work feels motivated to do better than a child watching a pre-recorded class online and submitting assignments for the sake of it. On paper, it is the usual school in progress, but the flavour of learning and getting one's attitudes refined is different when one has personalised attention of a teacher.
Parents of students and others around them end up thinking that children are not interested in studies. However, the reality is that most students want to improve, but lose motivation because they do not get proper support and personalised feedback. In such a scenario, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, automated student insight reports, and video lectures help fix the challenges. But these online tools can not be viewed in isolation. Peer learning, personalised attention, and one-on-one feedback backed with freedom for teachers elevate a child’s social development. Besides learning subjects, they learn about appropriate behaviours, body language, tones, and cultivate habits that help them in the long run.
What is the way forward
On the other hand, teachers find it difficult to keep pace with the rapidly-evolving technologies in education. So, it rests on educational institutes and ed-tech players to equip teachers with newer methodologies, empower them with digital tools, and make the blended mode of teaching accessible for them to be comfortable and remove apprehensions of bots replacing them.
Current ed-tech players are focusing on video lectures and pure play online offerings, which is not the solution. A 100% online learning cannot work in the long-run. The world is now shifting towards hybrid-first pedagogy, and COVID-19 has accelerated this transition. So, instead of trying to replace teachers, we must build a holistic hybrid model that considers teaching experience, knowledge, pedagogical expertise and local trust to the learners at affordable price, with technological intervention in self-study stage, backed with high-quality personalised education and analytics.
The author is the founder of SpeEdLabs.
