---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran
Date: Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 11:06 AM
Subject: My column in Mint today: 'Beware the trap of premature celebrations'
To:
From: Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran
Date: Tue, Oct 5, 2021 at 11:06 AM
Subject: My column in Mint today: 'Beware the trap of premature celebrations'
To:
https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/india-should-never-fall-into-the-trap-of-premature-celebration-11633364513671.html
Beware the trap of premature celebrations
4 min read . Updated: 05 Oct 2021, 01:29 AM IST
V. Anantha Nageswaran
We must focus on doing things right before getting too exuberant over the country's economic ascent
In the last 18 months, I have done nearly 100 hours of online teaching. The experience makes me worry about India. Attendance is poor. Students do not turn their cameras on. We don't know if they are present. As an instructor, I cannot look at students' faces and figure out if they are following me. As a result, there is perhaps far less learning that happens in these virtual classes than in physical classrooms.
"Getting an education through a screen, text files, videos, and audio files simply doesn't compare to face-to-face instruction. People don't value this kind of education, so they don't really commit to it," wrote Matthew Lynch in June 2019 (bit.ly/3uECBs4). This is true of online learning in general.
Indian states have kept their schools shut for nearly two academic years. Some are re-opening now. The extent of damage caused to student knowledge acquisition, be it their habits of and motivation for learning or their ability and willingness to absorb new skills, is difficult to estimate. It is unlikely to be trivial. We must factor this in our medium-term growth prospects.
Some paranoia should be our default state of mind, given the mammoth task of raising per capita incomes. Instead, a self-congratulatory tone is creeping in.
There is talk of the BSE Sensex at 200,000. In 2019, a year that India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth cratered, there was talk of achieving a $10 trillion nominal GDP by 2030. Such talk has begun to resurface, though a recovery has barely begun. If we are to avoid another boom-bust cycle, such triumphalism is best eschewed.
We need to get a few things right.
Beware the trap of premature celebrations
4 min read . Updated: 05 Oct 2021, 01:29 AM IST
V. Anantha Nageswaran
We must focus on doing things right before getting too exuberant over the country's economic ascent
In the last 18 months, I have done nearly 100 hours of online teaching. The experience makes me worry about India. Attendance is poor. Students do not turn their cameras on. We don't know if they are present. As an instructor, I cannot look at students' faces and figure out if they are following me. As a result, there is perhaps far less learning that happens in these virtual classes than in physical classrooms.
"Getting an education through a screen, text files, videos, and audio files simply doesn't compare to face-to-face instruction. People don't value this kind of education, so they don't really commit to it," wrote Matthew Lynch in June 2019 (bit.ly/3uECBs4). This is true of online learning in general.
Indian states have kept their schools shut for nearly two academic years. Some are re-opening now. The extent of damage caused to student knowledge acquisition, be it their habits of and motivation for learning or their ability and willingness to absorb new skills, is difficult to estimate. It is unlikely to be trivial. We must factor this in our medium-term growth prospects.
Some paranoia should be our default state of mind, given the mammoth task of raising per capita incomes. Instead, a self-congratulatory tone is creeping in.
There is talk of the BSE Sensex at 200,000. In 2019, a year that India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth cratered, there was talk of achieving a $10 trillion nominal GDP by 2030. Such talk has begun to resurface, though a recovery has barely begun. If we are to avoid another boom-bust cycle, such triumphalism is best eschewed.
We need to get a few things right.
... deleted for copyright reasons. the above is fair use.
No comments:
Post a Comment