Quality and holistic education is essentially a journey towards inclusion, encompassing the learning paradigms of self-reliance, inter-dependence, and universal inclusion. As a first step, education should focus on imparting skills required to perform tasks essential for independent living, including language skills necessary for life-long learning. Moving from learning to being self-reliant to appreciating the interdependence of people in the community and environment around us is the next big step in learning. The processes of education should focus on building the necessary skills to observe, listen, interact, reflect, communicate, support, and collaborate with people around us to create a sustainable, better world for ourselves. It is essential to nurture the fundamental human values and skills for critical thinking in every individual, helping them choose the right path, discriminating the right and wrong, and blossoming as a lifelong learner. Quality education not just helps an individual lead a well-balanced and happy life but strives to bring equity to all, enabling us to build an inclusive and sustainable society. Education should empower every individual to journey through the paradigms of • Becoming self-reliant individuals • Bolstering diversity and inter-dependence within communities • Blending into a universally inclusive society Although many educational institutes worldwide start with a lofty vision and broad objectives to impart holistic and inclusive education, over time, owing to several constraints, the focus narrows to a few tactical outcomes such as increasing student enrolment year-over-year and achieving academic results. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the National Education Policy of India 2020 was released with a strong focus to bring a paradigm shift in the Indian Education system. The focus is on holistic and multidisciplinary education that provides equitable and inclusive learning for all, with active community participation and technology integration. Education in India is catered by government and private institutes, each with distinct objectives and priorities. The private education sector remains highly fragmented and is primarily run by private trusts, societies, and local management committees. The sector also attracts philanthropic grants and private investment for building digital infrastructure, complementing the Government efforts on ICT in education such as DIKSHA and SWAYAM. It is essential to recognise the critical role played by teachers across government and private schools embracing the change to online education, equipping themselves with necessary technical skills to ensure learning continuity during school closures. Numerous CSR projects in India strongly focus on the education sector. They have played their part in supporting teachers, educating parents, and complementing government efforts to make learning possible through multiple channels. It is heartening to note that education remained a priority area for many corporates as part of their CSR programmes, despite additional spending in Covid relief and impact on their business. Corporate volunteers complemented the well-meaning efforts by NGOs and teachers to train teachers to use technology effectively and help them in content creation. While these technology-led innovations offer numerous and diverse learning possibilities, the pandemic has exposed the startling disparities in access to education through digital mediums across different strata of society. Online education was a distant dream for more than three-fourths of this population due to lack of access to digital devices and internet connectivity when the pandemic impacted about 247 million children from primary and secondary schools. Children with disabilities are even more severely affected due to their lack of access to learning resources and stimulating early childhood activities during the pandemic, as highlighted in the UNICEF report – ‘Children with Disabilities – Ensuring inclusion in Covid-19 response’. A White Paper on India’s National Education Policy and Disability Inclusive Education, published by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, points out the challenges in disability-inclusive education and highlights opportunities for transformative action. This report underlines the low enrolment of students with disabilities in schools and, in particular girls with disabilities and a very sharp decline in enrolment of students with disabilities in higher education. The State of the Education Report for India 2021, ‘No Teacher, No Class’ published by UNESCO highlights the shortages of teachers in early childhood education, special education, physical education, music, arts, and vocational education. The report also highlights how vulnerable they are in terms of job security and working conditions that are critical for achieving the goals for inclusive education.
