Context:
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Government spent merely 3.2% of its GDP on education in 2020-21.
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Online education started in India without any changes in infrastructure, training, etc.
Issues due to Online higher education in India:
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Struggle of non-elite institutes:
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Centrally funded elite institutes such as the IITs, IIMs, NITs and Central universities launched video channels and uploaded e-content on institutional websites and digital platforms
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On the other hand, State universities struggle without proper Internet connectivity and bandwidth on their campuses.
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There are several vacant faculty positions in universities. So, online education increased the work of already overburdened teachers.
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Problems for students: Many of the students lacked the facilities to attend online classes.
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Problems with practical education: Online education cannot replace practical field and laboratory-based learning in higher education.
How online higher education can be improved?
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Wider Stakeholder Consultation:
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According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (2018-19), India has 993 universities, 39,931 colleges, 3.73 crore students and 14.16 lakh, teachers.
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So, a wider consultation is needed before making any major changes.
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Tackling digital divide:
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Internet penetration is still low in India. So the government has to provide financial aids to obtain appropriate IT tools, platforms, devices, provide training, etc.
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Preparation of appropriate study material:
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Application-based learning is needed rather than uploading scanned notes/pdfs.
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Introduction of online education in a phased manner:
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A transition from conventional to online mode has to happen in a phased manner. State universities should first equip their infrastructure (both hard and soft) with complete government support.
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Development of other services:
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The government has to invest more in developing massive open online courses (MOOCs), direct-to-home (DTH) content development, digital classrooms etc.
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With more COVID-19 waves are expected, the government has to engage with academic stakeholders and invest adequately in online education as suggested by Fifteenth Finance Commission.