Short description:

Written from an interdisciplinary lens, this book presents a nuanced and contextual understanding of how the COVID-19 (re)shapes the education sector in India, a country that got its new education policy at the peak of the pandemic to revamp and restructure its educational landscape.

Long description:

Written from an interdisciplinary lens, this book presents a nuanced and contextual understanding of how COVID-19 (re)shapes the education sector in India, a country that got its new education policy at the peak of the pandemic to revamp and restructure its educational landscape.

This volume discusses three crucial issues connecting the COVID-19 pandemic and education in India ? learning and opportunity losses in the COVID-19 pandemic; access, inclusivity, and the idea of education in the online pedagogy market; and the neo-liberal agenda of education and the pandemic. It problematises the state?s response to the educational inequality crisis which the pandemic has laid bare. With both theoretical and data evidence, this book outlines the important strategies and plans needed to minimise the long-term cascading effect of the pandemic on human capital development in developing countries, and more specifically in India.

Readers will find this compellingly written volume engaging and interesting as it offers new micro-level insights on the threat of the pandemic on education and outlines a few pragmatic policy options to address them. This book would be useful to students, teachers, researchers, and public policy analysts working in the field of Education, Economics, Psychology, Development Studies, Social Work, Sociology and anyone with an interest in education and development discourse, particularly in the context of crises and emergencies. It would also find a place in the reading material of policymakers, professionals and leaders from government and non-government organisations engaged in looking at education and learning inequalities.

The educational havoc wrought by the Covid pandemic was nowhere more catastrophic than in India. With schools shuttered for 18 months, even the paltry substitute of 'online learning' remained inaccessible to many youngsters. Elites, their families largely insulated from any ill effects, are now eager to forget and move on. For their part, tech corporations peddle spurious forms of techno-solutionism trialled during the school closures. This volume from Satvinderpal Kaur and Pradeep Kumar Choudhury reminds us of the scale of the educational disaster triggered by COVID-19 and the enduring damage inflicted on India's most vulnerable citizens. Their work would make it harder to forget the consequences of this tragedy, inform efforts to remedy its effects and help ensure that educational authorities are better prepared to handle the next pandemic.

Edward Vickers, UNESCO Chair on Education for Peace, Social Justice and Global Citizenship, Kyushu University (Japan)

This volume brings together an interdisciplinary perspective on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in India. The papers provide macro and micro analyses of the multiple educational crises at all levels through the pandemic years and beyond.  Overall, the volume offers insight into how the pandemic served the interests of a state distanced from the educational needs of marginalised students, and business groups keen to exploit the market for online and digital technologies in the name of efficiency. The authors argue that these factors shifted the very imagination of education in a democratic country and what is necessary to reclaim a vision of education for equity and social justice. The volume is an important contribution to scholarship on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in India and is a valuable resource for students, researchers and those engaged in advocacy.

Nandini Manjrekar, Professor, School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (India)

Table of Contents:

Introduction: COVID-19 Pandemic and Disruptions in India?s Education Sector 1. Adolescent Girls? Education and Impact of Lockdown 2. Disruptions and Education: Assessing the Effect of Demonetisation, Goods and Service Tax (GST) and COVID-19 Pandemic on Loss of Learning Opportunities ? (LOLO) in Indian Schools 3. Reimagining Mathematics Education for a Post-Pandemic World 4. Universalising Access: Knowledge, Knowing and Online Education 5. Inclusive Education: Emerging Challenges amid Covid-19 Pandemic and Way Forward 6. Education, Technology, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Meeting Educational Goals or Drifting Away? 7. The academic environment in higher education institutions: Post Pandemic Challenges 8. Online education during COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences from urban poor children 9. Upshots of COVID-19 Pandemic on Elementary Schoolchildren in Rural India: A Case of North-Western States